Hi Ana,
As you have student labor available, the costs of running an old machine are probably quite a bit less than going to contractors. :-) But you have to maintain a labor pool that knows how to operate/maintain it, and students eventually leave. Those professors who would like to have it, are they willing to kick in funding or are they just hoping for a free SEM they can use whenever?
I spent quite a bit of time running an antique JEOL SEM. We did have a service contract with the manufacturer but it got more expensive every year, probably because the service group was worried that we would need a part that they couldn't scavenge off of a dusty unit sitting in a barn somewhere and they'd end up having to hand-solder some Russian transistors to make it work. Finally we got a new upper manager who realized that we needed to have rapid response and reliable service in-house (large public utility company) and we were able to buy a current unit.
We did look at the tabletop style units, even as an auxiliary or second machine to have, or possibly to use in a 'met lab in a van' proposal, but that did not go forward.
I expect that you have done 'Net searches, but there is a YouTube video about that approximate unit from 2010,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaLpj1gK0G4and there were references to similar machines that lead to
www.nanoimages.com/mini__sem
where you will certainly find someone who wants to sell you something new, but there may be reference material or even service availability for your older unit. You may even learn that a service visit can be obtained. That may be a better expense in the long run than having people just tinker with it. Ask if the tech might be coming to your area so you can split the travel expenses with other customers.
It's important to have service techs who will explain what they are doing to whomever is going to be doing the work. As you probably know, the basic purchase of an SEM is only the first expense, there's maintenance, a sputter or carbon coater, possible additional purchases (people really like elemental information but you need a detector and software to run it). Kinda like getting a pet. Best of luck! Paul T.
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Paul Tibbals
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-29-2022 15:47
From: Ana Diaz
Subject: Is this SEM worth salvaging?
A compact SEM machine (what seems to be an Evex Mini Scanning Electron Microscope 3000) has been sitting unused and semi-forgotten in the engineering school at Widener University. It is similar to the SEM pictured in the link
A few professors and I would like to have SEM capabilities......even if those capabilities are primitive. The manual we have is a total of 60 poorly-written pages and we have nothing to guide us.
According the a professor that is playing around with it, the beam is not aligned, gun is not aligned, and there is nothing describing how to properly calibrate it, and we lack any sort of alignment guides for how to to do it manually.
Does anyone service these antiques? Are they worth salvaging? Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.
I can be reached via this chat or at
aediaz@widener.eduThank you
Ana E Diaz, PE
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Ana Diaz
Principal Consultant
APV Consulting
Chadds Ford PA
(610) 388-2027
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