Applied LC and LC-MS maintenance and troubleshooting
- Duration: 1 day for live courses
- Experience level: Intermediate
- Delivery methods: Face-to-face | Offsite training & consultancy | On-Demand | Online | Onsite training & consultancy | Tailored training |
- Type of course: Universal
- Applicable to manufacturer(s): Agilent | Bruker | CTC analytics | JASCO | PerkinElmer | Sciex | Scion | Shimadzu | Thermo | Waters |
- CPD Approved: Not yet approved
- Scheduled course price: £425.00 + TAX per delegate
- Course discounts: RSC CAMS HEaTED Cambridge Network members receive a discount on this course
Your applied guide to maintaining and troubleshooting liquid chromatography (LC) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)
Day 5 and Modules 11 and 12 of the Complete LC & LC-MS and The LC & LC-MS Clinic course.
Applied LC and LC-MS maintenance and troubleshooting is approved by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) for the purposes of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), and provides an in-depth exploration of LC and LC-MS maintenance and troubleshooting. Designed for professionals, students, and analytical chemists wishing to maximise instrument performance, reliability, and uptime, this training provides the practical theory required to maintain analytical systems in peak operating condition while rapidly resolving common and complex analytical problems.
This day and modules can be combined with any of the other twelve modules and days in the Complete LC and LC-MS course to tailor your training needs.
Why should I join?
On completion of day 5 training, you will gain an understanding of maintenance and troubleshooting strategies for LC and LC-MS, giving you:
- An overview of preventative maintenance practices for LC and LC-MS systems
- Understanding of how proper maintenance improves instrument reliability, analytical performance, and data quality
- Practical guidance on maintaining columns, pumps, autosamplers, detectors, and LC-MS interfaces
- Knowledge of routine maintenance requirements for vacuum systems, gas supplies, ion sources, and ion transfer components
- A structured approach to troubleshooting chromatographic and mass spectrometric problems
- Understanding of how to identify root causes rather than simply treating symptoms
- An excellent addition to other modules and days within the Complete LC and LC-MS training programme
What would I learn?
This day focuses on maintaining reliable LC and LC-MS operation and solving common analytical problems, you will learn:
- How to implement effective preventative maintenance procedures for LC and LC-MS systems
- Best practice for mobile phase preparation, contamination control, solvent handling, and solvent management
- The maintenance requirements of injectors, pumps, autosamplers, detectors, and associated fluidic systems
- How to clean and maintain ion sources, sample cones, ion transfer optics, and associated LC-MS components
- How to apply a logical and systematic troubleshooting workflow to analytical problems
- How to diagnose problems related to pumps, autosamplers, columns, detectors, and data acquisition systems
- The causes of common chromatographic problems including ghost peaks, peak tailing, peak fronting, split peaks, retention time shifts, and carryover
- How to investigate baseline drift, noise, contamination, sensitivity losses, vacuum problems, and ionisation-related issues
What knowledge will I gain?
By the end of the day, you will:
- Know how to establish effective preventative maintenance schedules for LC and LC-MS systems
- Understand the maintenance requirements of major LC and LC-MS components and subsystems
- Be able to recognise common causes of poor chromatographic performance, contamination, and instrument deterioration
- Understand the operation and maintenance of LC-MS vacuum systems, gas supplies, and ionisation sources
- Know how to identify indicators of ion source contamination and declining mass spectrometer performance
- Understand the importance of pre- and post-maintenance performance verification
- Be able to apply a structured and repeatable troubleshooting process to analytical problems
- Know how to identify common causes of chromatographic and mass spectrometric faults
- Be able to diagnose retention time shifts, sensitivity losses, selectivity changes, carryover, and contamination problems
Is this course for me?
This day is designed for anyone who would like to learn more about maintaining and troubleshooting LC and LC-MS systems.
- Laboratory analysts and technicians responsible for the day-to-day operation of LC, HPLC and LC-MS systems
- Laboratory managers responsible for instrument performance, analytical quality, and laboratory productivity
- Service engineers seeking a deeper understanding of LC and LC-MS maintenance and fault diagnosis
- Data analysts and report writers working with LC and LC-MS data
- Sales, commercial, or marketing teams supporting chromatography and mass spectrometry products, consumables, instrumentation, and analytical services
If LC or LC-MS touches your work in any way, this well-planned training day, delivered by experts in the field, equips you with the knowledge needed to understand these techniques.
