So, we picked up a rather ancient SRI 8610 GC a while back, and after a little rehab and a column swap, I had a headspace method that looked good enough to throw money then time at hooking up one of the headspace autoinjectors we have on hand.
Now it’s not getting H2. I suspect an electrical/electronic issue rather than a mechanical one, based on the numbers I’m getting from the onboad “carrier” and “h2” sensors.
the machine came with a couple of “extra” valves. one looks new. one looks like it was removed. the chassis is also missing one.
I haven’t dug in beyond that. might get to it today, figured I’d wait on calling @srihugh1 till I had a little more info, and time to actually explore. I’ve been inside this one to swap out the bearings on the fan motor, and this thing is old enough that I believe the corollary to @srihugh1’s
Probably works OK.
is “…but it’s essentially non-repairable.”
I’m only bothering you lot with it now because the machinist called and said he’d have my stuff done in an hr, and he’s only 15 min from here… so I figured I’d waste some time in a semi-productive fashion.
I suspect there will be GC dissection photos and trouble shooting tips that others will benefit from, and I use this place as swap space.
Would certainly love to see pics of dissection and troubleshooting. Haven’t had to get up under the skirt of mine, but if I ever do, having some pics wouldn’t hurt!
there is a flow restrictor (orifice) at the regulator, which is supposed to limit the ramifications of breaking a GC column, but I’ve never been certain this one was actually flowing enough.
the first SRI I picked up (~10 years back) had had the flow restrictor removed, and looking at this flow rate you can certainly understand why the guys at the welding supply thought it needed removed.
regulator is set at 75PSI currently. I’m sending this video to @srihugh to confirm that’s enough flow to continue upstream before I flip the GC over and open it up…it looks on the low side to me.
Yeah, we are looking for flow. I too think that is low, but psi isn’t really relevant for measuring flow
Somewhere between 5 & 25ml/min.
No way I’m hitting the latter, but it’s possible I’m managing the first. Hugh said he couldn’t see the video and pointed me at a couple of leak testing videos.
I’m having some kind of similar issue on the 310c. In the past I’ve been able to sniff out the leak with the same red detector shown in the video above, tighten connection and get the detector running but it seems to be eluding me now. Using the detector, I am seeing hydrogen come out of the fid exit and i verified that both the air pump and ignitor were working but I still don’t seem to be getting combustion. At this point I’m considering taking out the second column so the plumbing is as simple as possible; wondering if I’m still losing too much hydrogen to get it to light. I’m also considering trying to pipe a generator or tank on to see if its the built in generator going bad.
Are you able to see if hydrogen is coming out of the fid despite the machine showing no flow? Maybe (due to different circumstances) we are both not able to ‘light up’ being under the minimum flow threshold.
Having a little SRI on hand is a great little tool for tracking new processes. Every pcb in the system has its own calibration and are easy to adjust. Lots of info on their website. Sometimes the pressure sensors on the solenoid valves can take a shit. Super easy to upgrade and modify otherwise.
Use mine all the time with psilo runs to track the actives.
