What do you get when a defrosted sample meets a system error just before a run? Ask Max! In this month’s customer success story, field service engineer Max Ferri tells us how he resolved a customer’s system error remotely to avoid costly sample loss.
Gino Massimiliano Ferri
Global remote service engineer
Late in the afternoon, I received a telephone call from a customer. They were washing their BioProcess™ chromatography system and column ahead of a new production campaign starting during the night shift. The sample was already defrosted and ready to be pushed inside the pipe.
Unfortunately, during the washing method, they got an overpressure error, and there was no way to reset it. There was so much panic and stress from the other side of the wire!
As a first step, I asked them to send the run log and software error report, and I saw that the pressure error happened when the method switched the column from Bypass to Down Flow.
I used our engineering database to find piping and instrument diagrams and a wiring schematic of the system, then I asked if anyone had worked on the column valves recently. The customer told me that maintenance people had recently repaired a compressed-air hose leak on one of the valves.
I asked the customer to send photos of the column valve block and the cable and hose labels so I could compare them to the wiring schematic. In one of those pictures, I saw that the two sensor cables on one valve were reversed! Restoring the correct wiring position solved the issue.
Fig 1. Diagnosis: two air tubing connections in the customer’s BioProcess™ chromatography machine had been accidentally reversed.
Let’s think how crucial for the customer it was to stay in touch with us directly to solve this problem: it was already late afternoon and there was no way I could be on site before the next day. A defrosted sample is unusable after more than eight hours at ambient temperature. Losing a sample can turn into an expensive problem.
Another lesson I learned is that our engineering database, Magic, is really valuable. I can use it to easily access the complete system documentation, spare parts catalog , and many other resources. It’s a great tool for helping customers solve unexpected issues quickly and efficiently.
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