Cost of maintaining handheld XRF technology

[Dennis Piechota]

Hi all,

I'm forwarding this question for a conservation colleague, Caroline Roberts. 

You can respond directly to Carrie at:  carri...@gmail.com

But I hope that if you respond you will also post your thoughts here to the pXRF group. I am also interested in this question. I interpret it as including: what we might expect to be the use-life of a purchased analyzer. How soon should one expect to need to re-invest in a replacement analyzer.

For example, my Bruker Tracer IIISD is ten years old. When I purchased it in 2010 it was the latest and greatest model offered by that company. Now it seems as old as I am! And like me its tube is slowly fading- still serviceable but requires some extra care and patience. :>)

So I would ask that you include replacement cost considerations to Carrie's question below.

Thanks

Dennis

Greetings,
My institution is considering purchasing a handheld Bruker XRF unit for collections research. I would like to write some of the maintenance costs into our budget, and wonder if any Bruker users out there might be willing to share how much they have spent caring for their instrument over the long term. Please feel free to write me off list. 
Many thanks and best wishes,
Carrie
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Caroline Roberts 
Conservator
Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
Ann Arbor, MI
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[Lucas Martindale Johnson]

Hi Dennis,

I operate two Tracers III-SDs (T3S1878 and T3S2693). They were refurbished when purchased so had some miles on them already. I think they were Bruker Demo units. The only issue we had was a bubble in the Xbox due to high elevation. It was a modest inspection fee from Bruker, a rate they charge for inspecting the instrument (Contact Bruker for this price). The part was drained and refilled with an oil solution (if I remember correctly). Other than this one incident, we have not had other issues, beyond software issues that came with Windows updates. The instruments operate on a weekly basis with some down time. We mainly analyze obsidian (40kV and 40 amps for 90-240 seconds).

I have been told, however, that the tube can die a quick death and that it costs ~10k to replace it. It may also die slowly whereby the voltage starts to drop or where the instrument cannot reach 40kV. The bubble in our tube caused a lower max voltage (~35kV), but it can also happen if the voltage regulator is malfunctioning.

Hope this helps,

-Lucas

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