[RASMB] turbo-molecular pumps in Beckman XLA XLI

[Arthur Rowe]

Hi all

I warmly endorse the praise for the work put in by Walter (2005 onwards)  in both getting a turbo pump working in an XLI/A instruments - and in getting Beckman to take this idea seriously.

I recall that I had little success in the latter area when I tried in 2004. As I posted on RASMB (April 7th 2004):

"The problem with oil in the XL-I/A is a notorious and intractable one.
Having a turbo pump instead of that horrible 'straight through, unvalved' DP
system sounds very easy to do, and I have long contemplated doing it. After
all, you can get compatible flanges, I am sure. And as a long-time electron
microscopist and builder of ancillary equipment I just shudder at the
crudity of AUC vacuum systems.

However - such discussions as I have had with Beckman people suggest that
this approach (using a turbo) would help but not really solve the oil
problem, which is at least partially due to oil from the drive shaft of the
motor, not just to oil from blowback from the DP."
I wonder if the story which Beckman gave me in 2004 about leakage of oil vapour from the drive shaft of the motor was other than a 'smoke screen' for inaction? Or is there really oil leaking in that location?

Arthur

Professor Arthur J Rowe
NCMH/Food Sciences
University of Nottingham
Sutton Bonington
Leics LE12 5RD UK

Tel: +44 115 9516156
arthur.rowe at nottingham.ac.uk

On 12 Apr 2013, at 16:52, Laue, Thomas wrote:

> Here, here!
> Tom
> From: rasmb-bounces at list.rasmb.org [rasmb-bounces at list.rasmb.org] on behalf of David Hayes [drdavidbhayes at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 11:44 AM
> To: RASMB
> Subject: [RASMB] turbo-molecular pumps in Beckman XLA XLI
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Just wanted to write a public thank-you note to Walter Stafford for pioneering hardware work to get Beckman to put in turbomolecular pumps in their analytical ultracentrifuges.  We recently had an install of a new XLA and found out that even the XLA's come with turbo pumps standard.  This made me wonder if Beckman ever wrote a thankyou letter to Walter for pioneering this hardware improvement, which thought led me to write a thank you letter to Walter for this and also for all the years managing and contributing to the RASMB list for biophysics scientists.
> 
> David Hayes
> _______________________________________________
> RASMB mailing list
> RASMB at list.rasmb.org
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