Preventative Maintenance

“With proper maintenance, service, and repair, your successful instruments can remain productive at optimal performance with minimal downtime.”

– From Experience and Historical Data

Aside from ensuring that best practices are followed on a day-to-day basis for instrument operation, Preventative Maintenance (PM) is the most important aspect of your analytical instrument maintenance cycle. PMs prevent unnecessary productivity and financial losses associated with having to repair your instrument once it breaks. Therefore, having a PM schedule that is optimized to your instruments is crucial for a productive laboratory. We can help you decide when PMs should be performed on your chromatography instruments to keep your labs running more efficiently.

How frequently a customer requires a PM will depend on factors such as: (1) How frequently the instrument is used; (2) How critical the instrument is to your lab operations; (3) Instrument redundancy and; (4) Types of samples being run. For compliance purposes, many customers ‘ SOPs will define what PM schedule is required for their instruments. However, we have outlined some general rules of thumb when trying to determine which PM frequency is ideal for your needs.

A PM is a crucial process ensuring that your instrument experiences reduced downtime. Professional service technicians can identify potential sources of failure during the PM process. The use of a checklist, instrument module tests, evaluation of parts condition, and replacement of PM parts results in minimizing future repair visits.

Another benefit we can offer is to replace only necessary PM parts (replaced as required, RAR) during a PM by examining the historical wear patterns on the specific instrument. Although some customer protocols will not allow for this approach, it can be a good way to save money by avoiding unnecessary part replacement costs.

The bottom line: Save $$$ long-term by hiring an ALPHA-1 expert to perform your preventative maintenance.

We provide preventative maintenance (PM) on your systems to guarantee optimal performance and extend instrument lifetime. We offer the option of using full or partial PM kits (replace as required) based on your technical needs and budget. We have extensive experience following our own PM checklists and/or our customers internal PM SOPs.

The majority of our service contract options include one annual PM per instrument. We make sure that any instrument covered in our annual PM plans are scheduled well in advance to ensure that the PM is performed on time saving you the stress of downtime.

This service includes changing defined PM kits and associated parts for each module in the instrument. A full validation is then performed post-PM as required by regulatory agencies. This option is ideal for customers in a compliant environment that does not have their own metrology group.

This service includes changing defined PM kits and associated parts for each module in the instrument. A full PM requires full validation, according to most regulatory agencies. As a result, this service is ideal for customers who have their own metrology group ready to perform validation after PM.

A Replace As Required (RAR) PM. The technician will evaluate the instrument and change all PM parts required only. PM parts found to be in good condition are not changed. Testing of the modules is performed to prove that in operational. Ideal for customers that are budget sensitive.

Trust the experts at ALPHA-1 to ensure that your PM is performed correctly. We go above and beyond to ensure that any HPLC or GC chromatography instrument undergoing an ALPHA-1 PM is not only functional but also performing optimally. We identify any issues with your instrument that may not be part of a competitive PM and bring them to your attention to ensure that your instrument doesn’t break down when a technician isn’t present.

Many of our options can also save you a significant amount of money long-term. Schedule a consultation with us today so that you can experience the ALPHA-1 difference.

We will usually get back to you via email or phone within one business day.