Andrew
_______________________________________________________________
AstraZeneca R&D Charnwood
Molecular Biology, Bakewell Road, Loughborough, Leics, LE11 5RH, England
Tel: +44 (0)1509 644213 Fax: +44 (0)1509 645557 Mobile: +44 (0)778
8595040
andrew.walding@charnwood.gb.astra.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas J. Stelick [mailto:tjs11@cornell.edu]
Sent: 16 August 1999 14:32
To: Recipients of ABRF List
Subject: dna seq: electrical hazard
hello everyone
I have had some problems recently with my 377 DNA sequencers. We
are getting what must be some kind of short circuit in the lower buffer
chamber which has twice melted the plastic around the chamber. The melting
isn't large, it looks like a small lightning bolt behind the chamber. ABI
says they have never seen this before and that it must be due to some kind
of buffer leak. I can accept this but my problem is that the machines
never shut down when this happened. I would think that a surge of that
kind of power would trip some kind of circuit and stop the run, but it
never has. 2 weeks ago it happened again only this time enough current
discharged that it produced about a half in burn on the glass plate. The
glass was etched and pitted. This must have taken quite a bit of power and
the again the machine didn't shut down. This may be a potential hazard to
staff it this happens and they might are touching the machines. This has
happened on 2 different machines so it is not a problem with one machine.
If anyone else has seen this I would greatly like to hear about it.
Tom Stelick
TJS11@cornell.edu
BioResource Center, Cornell University
157 biotech bldg.
Ithaca, NY 14853
(607)254-4857
http://brcweb.bio.cornell.edu