By readski on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 12:43 pm:
How long should one expect a typical UV-lamp to last in an Agilent 1100 detector (or similar instrument)?
Does constant use (24hr/7day) decrease this life?
Thanks for any information
By Anonymous on Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 07:46 pm:
In general 2000 hrs
By Tom Mizukami on Sunday, February 16, 2003 - 01:17 pm:
It depends on the lamp, the detector, and the wavelength. Agilent makes a long life lamp for the DAD that should last around 2000 hrs. A standard lamp in the DAD will last somewhere around 700-1000 hrs. Any lamp in the VWD will last much longer because is operates at a lower cathode voltage.
Lamp life is a funtion of both hours and number of ignitions.
On the VWD you can check sample and reference energy with the hand held controller, you should have >500,000 counts. With both the DAD and the VWD you can run an intensity test with ChemStation. Good luck.
By readski on Sunday, February 16, 2003 - 01:49 pm:
Recently we have been experiencing lamps that last <2 months in an Agilent 1100 MWD detector. We run 24/7 so we rarely have to reignite them.
We monitor intensity and have noticed that lamps are starting to pulse (shifts in baseline or sawtooth patterns) while the intensity has remained high. They will fail the self test S/N analysis.
Could this be caused by another problem? IE power supply or circuit board?
By Anonymous on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 02:59 am:
This is a common problem with some UV lamps , some time they do not last longer. This could be cos of long storage time before use . Please check the mfg. date of that lamp. these UV lamps can go bad on storage even if they are not used. Any way the agilent lamps come with min 2000 hrs use warranty, get hold of your supplier and ask for replacement if they have supplied u old lamp.
good luck
By Anonymous on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 03:01 am:
one more thing u can do is take out the lamp , clean it with IPA and then try.
By readski on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 03:07 am:
Clean with IPA? What does this do?
By Anonymous on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 07:29 am:
at least remove dust from lenses.
By Ananda on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 12:37 pm:
All the Waters UV lamps have a mercury scale to measure the life time of the bulb. So you would know for sure the life time of the bulb is over or not. Agilent lamps dont have this feature?
To minimize the usage, I hope you have added a "Lamp off' function in your 'Instrument Method' of the chromatographic run method so the lamp goes off automatically after your last sample is analyzed while you are away/and or during overnight runs.
Good Luck!
Ananda S.
By Steve on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 03:59 pm:
Actually, Agilent carries (or used to carry) two long-life lamps. One with mercury timer and one without. I believe the mercury timer only increments when the lamp is on. Since both the control module and ChemStation can monitor lamp on time, there is no need to use lamps with mercury on Agilent systems. Besides, disposing of lamps with mercury presents additonal problems. If you are concerned about lamps not reaching 2000 hours, do not order lamps and store them for long periods of time (> 1 month). Contact the vendor if you believe the lamps you receive are unsually old.