Coulter ACL Elite Needle Probe 18110843

Troubleshooting Needle probe 18110843 movement and other Errors.

Many of the general needle movement errors on the ACL 9000/10000/Elite/Elite Pro are caused by needle probes that have become bent. Once one of the needles is out of position due to being bent (from a crash or obstruction) all of the load and dispense positions will be off. That is an obvious conclusion that in the real world is often over looked. The placement of each of the positions that the needle probe assembly moves to is a calibrated position. If your needle is bent and you try to bend it back you have a small chance that the system will work correctly afterwards. Manually bending these needles back will effect the integrity of the sample results. The needles are not just tubing’s that direct reagents and samples, they are also designed with critical electrical connection that help the instrument determine many other factors. Also if you think about it once you bend a tubing from its design specifications in many cases you will cause the smooth surface of the inner wall of the needle to form a crease. These needles must move reagent and sample in an unimpeded manner. If we have caused a crease inside the needle it will in some cases cause turbulent’s in the flow of the reagent or sample. This can cause micro bubbles and other flow and possible volume problems.

Also if you have re bent a needle after a crash do not use that needle assembly to calibrate the needle arm position movements. If you do you will be setting them to a damaged needle assembly and when you replace that probe with a new one you can cause damage to the new assembly due to the possibility of a needle crash. In short if you have a bend needle it is recommended to replace it. Also if you do not have regular PM visits where the engineer replaces the probe you may want to consider replacing them yourself at between 3 to 12 months of use depending on your sample volume.