Plagued by recurrent power fluctuations and outages, critical instrumentation at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio’s Institutional Mass Spectrometry Laboratory now protected for 24/7 operation and analysis.
Tustin, CA – During the frequent night-time thunderstorms that hit South Texas, the core director of the Institutional Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Dr. Sue Weintraub, often didn’t sleep well at night knowing that the laboratory’s Thermo Fisher LTQ MS® linear ion trap mass spectrometer sat vulnerable to damaging power interruptions. In addition to power outages from thunderstorms, this highly-automated instrument, which regularly runs analyses around the clock, was often plagued by power “bumps” caused by the city’s power delivery services. These power “bumps” resulted in loss of data that was especially a problem for multi-sample analysis sets. At the recommendation of a trusted Thermo Fisher service representative, Weintraub contacted Franek Technologies, the leader in certified Category III-3 Laboratory Battery Backup Power Protection Systems (LPS/UPS), for a solution.
“In a single telephone conversation, the engineering consultants at Franek Technologies knew exactly what level of power protection we needed for our LTQ,” explained Weintraub. “We clearly benefited from their years of industry experience, and I can now rest assured that our instrument will receive smooth and conditioned power around the clock so that our analyses will not be interrupted. This is a huge relief for me.”
As a core facility, the Institutional Mass Spectrometry Laboratory provides MS analyses for the university and other institutions in the community and beyond. To successfully serve the user group and provide timely, consistent results, the laboratory’s critical instrumentation needs to perform to its maximum potential. To keep up with demand, the instrumentation is regularly run in an automated mode, literally performing analyses around the clock. If a test in progress is interrupted, the potentially irreplaceable sample is lost. In addition, if that sample was part of a set, the entire experiment would probably have to be repeated. Inconsistent power delivery was a constant source of anxiety for Weintraub. With the successful installation of the Franek Technologies power protection system, Weintraub has learned a valuable lesson about proactive laboratory management.
“Simply put, I wouldn’t order another mass spectrometer without including supplemental power protection,” Weintraub states. “In the future, I will request Franek Technologies power protection units in all my grant applications. The Franek Technologies units protect all aspects of operation and to me that is a requirement, not a luxury.”
Franek Technologies, Inc. specializes in providing Laboratory Productivity/Protection Systems (LPS/UPS) for analytical, diagnostics, forensic, life-science, pharmaceutical and biotechnology instrumentation systems applications. Its certified uninterruptible battery backup power sources for laboratory and instrumentation applications protect over $3 billion in laboratory assets worldwide. The company’s power engineers have developed LPS/UPS products for over 1,500 instrumentation applications, from more than 100 manufacturers, to meet U.S. Government power requirements. For more information, call (800) 326-6480 or visit www.franek.com.
About The UTHSCSA Institutional Mass Spectrometry Laboratory:
As part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the Institutional Mass Spectrometry Laboratory offers services including molecular mass determination; protein identification and characterization; electron impact and chemical ionization mass spectrometry; and 1-D and 2-D gel electrophoresis. For more information, visit: http://www.uthscsa.edu/mass-spectrometry.