Agilent 6546 cleaning ion source

Question

Hi everyone, 
 we wanted to clean the ion source for the first time. 
 The videos were unfortunetly not very helpfull. We lowered the temperature of gas and sheath gas and let it cool to 25&deg;C, and then lowered the flow rate of the gas. if we would put the system into standby the temperature goes up again, so this is not an option. However if we want to clean the ion source we have to remove the tubes to the nebulizer, but there is still gas flow on them. so if i remove them N2 just flows into the room with 1-2 L/min. (This would also be for the sheath gas line) I can't imagine that this is how its supposed to be done. 
 Does someone have a solution for this? 
 Or do we have to shut down the machine completely, which i would find not so logical, as all the videos for other models highlight that this can be done without shutting down the instrument. 
 
 Thank you very much, 
 Kevin

chrisklein · Answer

Hi Kevin, 
 Whenever you open the source, the instrument goes into a fault state, and default values are applied, same as with standby. Put the instrument into standby, and wait for 20min. After this cooling time it is safe to disconnect the sheath gas supply, remove electric cables and take the source off for cleaning. For cleaning the source body of the desolvation chamber some reaming dry-gas will still be applied. Use a lint-free cloth to remove sprayshield and capillary cap, remove capillary if needed, and clean the source. Typically MeOH is sufficient to clean, but some other samples might require stronger solvents, in either case, the last cleaning step should be done with MeOH, as it has less impurities as e.g. IPA. Don't use cleaning solvents that were stored in a plastic container.

Agilent 6546 cleaning ion source

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