Pittcon Short Course: Applied Maintenance and Troubleshooting for GC & GC-MS

Applied Maintenance and Troubleshooting for Gas Chromatography and Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry

Pittcon 2023 Short Course

Sunday 19th March 2023 - 8:30am - 5:00pm

This course has been approved by the Royal Society of Chemistry for purposes of Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

What will you learn on this course?

This course looks at the parts of the GC and GC-MS system requiring maintenance. The frequency and how to identify when maintenance is required, are covered in detail.

The course then looks at preparing for problems, how to identify problems and the troubleshooting process. Participants will then implement the knowledge gained through exercises on troubleshooting chromatograms.

The course has a strong focus on the practical information regarding the techniques, with instrument parts and consumables to see and chromatograms to troubleshoot. The knowledge gained can be utilised the instant you return to your lab.

The course covers in detail the parts of the system requiring maintenance and the logical steps of troubleshooting, covering:

  • GC Maintenance:
    • Gases & plumbing
    • Autosamplers
    • Inlets
    • Columns
    • GC detectors
  • MS Maintenance:
    • Air & water checks & tuning
    • MS parts
    • PC maintenance
    • Suggested maintenance schedules
  • Logical troubleshooting
    • Problem areas:
      • Samples
      • Gases & plumbing
      • Autosamplers
      • Inlets
      • Columns
      • GC detectors
      • Leaks
      • Mass spectrometer vacuum
      • Mass spectrometer sensitivity
    • General problems:
      • Chromatogram examination
      • Contamination
      • Sensitivity
      • Retention time shifts

    Learning outcomes

    • You will learn about each part of the instrument requiring maintenance and why, when maintenance is required and how frequently maintenance is required for each instrument part and consumable.
    • You will learn the logical steps of instrument troubleshooting and how to break the instrument down into modules.
    • You will learn how to examine chromatograms, identify any problems seen and determine which part of the instrument could be the cause and gain practical experience of this process.

    View and book this course on the Pittcon event website.