Apologies for coming late with this comment, but this A280 filter clouding problem appears to be a common "feature" of the AKTA machines. The UV unit on these AKTAs is the same as on the old FPLC machines and the filters are interchangeable. The filters from the 10-20 year old FPLC machines fit perfectly into the AKTA UV unit and have a much longer life (15+ years) than the new GE-made filters.
Best, Petr From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:ccp...@jiscmail.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Patrick Loll Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 11:18 PM To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] low UV reading on AKTA prime I second Scott's post. About the only problem we've had with our Akta instruments is this type of degradation of the filter. I'm not sure what the mechanism is, but the filters do seem to crap out after a while, at least in the cold room (oxidation? I have no idea of what the filter is made of...). Pat On 1 Jul 2009, at 5:07 PM, Scott Walsh wrote: Hi Matt, Check to make sure the A280 filter is clean. Ours was filthy. You might need to replace this (~$350). We were experiencing the same thing you mentioned and just had the GE technician out today. Also, make sure the A280 dial is set correctly on the lamp. Please check the manual for guidance. Best, Scott ----- Original Message ----- From: Matt Colins <matt.colins2...@yahoo.com<mailto:matt.colins2...@yahoo.com>> Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 4:40 pm Subject: [ccp4bb] low UV reading on AKTA prime To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK<mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK> > Hi all, > > We recently got low UV reading on our AKTA prime. We contacted > GE healthcare, but was told that the UV reading on AKTA prime > should be 20% of the spectrometer reading, because the path > length of the flow cell of AKTA prime is only 2 mm (20% of the > pathlength of a spectrometer cuvette). > > I am not sure whether that is the case, but we used to get much > higher UV readings on the same AKTA prime (almost the same as > the spectrometer reading). The UV reading just keeps dropping > over time in the past several months. > > Here I have two questions. First, should the UV reading on > AKTA prime be 20% of the spectrometer reading? Second, what > could go wrong with our AKTA prime? (I know it is not the lamp, > because we put in a new lamp and it didn't solve the problem) > > Thanks a lot! > Matt > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick J. Loll, Ph. D. Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Director, Biochemistry Graduate Program Drexel University College of Medicine Room 10-102 New College Building 245 N. 15th St., Mailstop 497 Philadelphia, PA 19102-1192 USA (215) 762-7706 pat.l...@drexelmed.edu<mailto:pat.l...@drexelmed.edu>
