Alexis Armstrong and Heather Barnes
Overview
EXP378T left San Diego and transited to Fiji. Only one USGS scientist sailed (Dale Griffin) to take atmospheric dust samples. The ship was tied-up in Fiji form Dec 11th to Jan 3rd. The Bruker XRD and Panalytical XRD were used minimally (maintenance and training purposes only) with some issues listed below.
Bruker XRD
Aeris Panalytical XRD
We trained on the Aeris XRD. Setting up a measurement file and changing hardware in the XRD as needed. We ran 1 sample successfully but on second attempt could not get the XRay generator to start up. Errors encountered were O.BootsstrapperBlockedOnXsafeUnsafe and O.Safety.XsafeUnsafe (these errors are logged on the machine). The manual procedure for clearing this error includs turning off, opening cover and making sure it is closed correctly, restarting, toggling the HT key. We tried this several times with no avail. Steps leading to the error are: before the second run, I tried to open the cover while it was still locked (gently tried) - this may have caused the error. We have set up a Work Order with Malvern Panalytical and emailed Vladimir (XRD techs are CC'ed). WO # 001511.
Here is Vladimir's first reply:
Hi Heather,
The cover is part of x-ray safety system. Looks like x-ray safety was indeed compromised in attempt to open the cover manually while it was locked. You mentioned that the instrument was restarted, but the error cannot be cleared. Is it just the error or you still cannot turn x-ray generator ON? If this is still the case, please try following:
Turn the instrument off from control panel;
Then turn off breaker switch on the back of the instrument (if you face Aeris this toggle switch is on the right rear side) for about 30 seconds, then put it back on;
Restart the instrument with the x-ray key off ( horizontal position);
After instrument restart, open and close the cover;
Turn the x-ray key ON (vertical position);
Let me know what happed,
Best regards,