Pinnacle Preventative Maintenance

Keep your Pinnacle in good condition and minimize downtime by performing annual maintenance. Performing Preventative Maintenance on your Pinnacle PCX is easy to accomplish with the Kits and Instruction we provide. Refer to the Maintenance Section of the Pinnacle Manual for details on performing the maintenance. Contact Pickering Laboratories Technical Support with any questions. 800-654-3330, 650-694-6700, or email support@pickeringlabs.com

Below you can find a general maintenance schedule. Your maintenance schedule will depend on usage. If you use the Pinnacle PCX 24x7, you may want to perform the Preventative Maintenance more often.

Maintenance Schedule

Routine Maintenance

-         Check for leaks every day

-         Replace Flush and Piston Wash reservoirs every week

-         Record operating pressures in a daily log book

Preventative Maintenance

-         Replace Valve and Pump Seals every 12 months

-         Replace the 10um Reagent Frits every 3 months

-         Change the tubing every 24 months

Part Numbers

1000-1003               Kit, PM Service, Pinnacle Single Pump (Pump seals, Valve seals, and replacement filter)

1000-1004               Kit, PM Service, Pinnacle Dual Pump (Pump seals, Valve seals, and replacement filter)

1100-0500               Tubing Kit, Pinnacle Dual Pump

1100-0501               Tubing Kit, Pinnacle Single Pump

1452-0122               Pump Seal Kit, Pinnacle

1452-0200               Valve Seal Tool, Pinnacle (Tool only)

1452-0201               Valve Seals kit, Pinnacle (Seals only)

1452-0202               Valve Maintenance Kit, Pinnacle (seals and tool)

3102-9040               Replacement Reagent 10um Filter

1452-0200               Valve Seal Tool

Parts Lookup

Please try our Parts Lookup on our website if you ever need to find a part number. The Parts Lookup is located on our website. Start at http://www.pickeringlabs.com/

Select Parts Lookup under the Service & Support menu

Or, you can also find the Parts Lookup under the Products menu.

Select the Parts Lookup from the Replacement Components menu on the left side of the page.

Next, choose which instrument you are using.

Once you are in the Parts Lookup, simply click on a part or drag you mouse over the part of interest to see the part numbers.

Sincerely,

David Mazawa

 

Technical Support Chemist

Pickering Laboratories, Inc.

1280 Space Park Way

Mountain View, California 94043 USA

Phone: 650-694-6700, ext. 710

Fax: 650-968-0749

david.mazawa@pickeringlabs.com

Notice of Backwards Compatible Board for Pinnacle Users

The new Sigma Series Pinnacle PCX has rolled out with a lot of new features. A new Electronic Control Board is included to support many of these features. You will notice that the new boards are blue in color and have a USB connection replacing the RS-232 connection.

Customers with the older Delta Series Pinnacle PCX will have to purchase a backwards compatible board if they experience a board failure.

The backwards compatible board will have a slightly different relay connector to fit properly in the old chassis. The backwards compatible boards will have the most recent firmware, software, and also include a USB cable. Make sure to have your Pinnacle PCX Serial Number handy when ordering a replacement board.

Part Number	Description	Serial Numbers
1500-1507	Replacement board for Delta Series Pinnacle PCX	before 0510308
1500-1508	Replacement board for the Sigma Series Pinnacle PCX	after 0610300

David Mazawa





Technical Support Chemist
David.mazawa@pickeringlabs.com
(650)694-6700 x710

Sigma Series Pinnacle Control Software

By David Mazawa

You may have noticed something different about the Pinnacle. That is because the new Pinnacle Sigma series started shipping out mid June. Some improvements include fully ROHS compliant components, power cooling, USB connection, log file expansion, PEEK front end for reagent pumps, and lighter parts. It is important to note that new Pinnacle Control Software has been updated to support some of the new features.

Before installing the new software, make sure to export your Methods and Sequences. This will create a back up of all your Methods and Sequences. It is possible that your old Methods and Sequences will not transfer after installation of the new software. If this is the case, import your backup file.

You will notice that you need to install drivers with the new Pinnacle Control Software. The drivers are required to communicate with the USB port of the Sigma Series Pinnacle. We have replaced the RS-232 connection with USB. Make sure you follow the instructions included with the Pinnacle Control Software Installation CD.

After you have installed the new Pinnacle Control Software, make sure you double check the instrument configuration. It is possible that the default configuration of “No Connection to HPLC” will be loaded. After your methods and sequences are imported and your configuration is correct, you are ready to use the new Pinnacle Control Software.

The new Pinnacle Control Software includes pressure tests. These pressure tests should be used after a PM or when pump or valve seals have been replaced. You can pressure test individual pumps or pressure test the entire system. Make sure to follow the instructions presented by the Pinnacle Control Software. These tests can be found under Instrument then Maintenance.

The Pinnacle Control Software has expanded the log files. An extra day of data is collected and more detail is collected per log file. This will greatly help Pickering Laboratories Technical Support troubleshoot any problems you may have in the future.

Please email or call Pickering Laboratories Support with any questions.

support@pickeringlabs.com / (650) 694-7700 / (800) 654-3330

David Mazawa

Technical Support Chemist

david.mazawa@pickeringlabs.com

(650) 694-6700 x 710

Pickering Laboratories rolls out up-grade to Pinnacle PCX: New Sigma Series, by Mike Gottschalk

The Pinnacle PCX Delta Series post-column derivatization instrument was first introduced in January 2005 to replace the PCX 5200 instrument. The Pinnacle PCX introduction brought new technologies to post-column systems including programmable temperature gradient column oven, inert flow path, reactor coil cartridge switching system, computer controlled software among others.

With the inclusion of the column temperature gradient feature, our amino acid analysis time for hydrolysates was reduced by half from 60 minutes to 30 minutes. In addition to improved analysis speed the ability to change reactor volumes easily made the Pinnacle PCX ideal for method development and application switching.

The development team at Pickering has been working behind the scenes to improve and expand the advantages of the Pinnacle PCX. Now with the confluence of several new features and improvements a complete series up-grade is occurring to the Sigma Series.

Notable improvement highlights:

• Fully ROHS compliant – the European Union directive to eliminate toxic compounds in electronic equipment.
• Power cooling – additional fans and air ducts have been developed to speed airflow in the column oven for faster cooling.
• USB connection to PC – in addition to the Ethernet and relay connections USB has been added.
• Pinnacle PCX Software version 1.0.0.7 includes 4 day log files for over the weekend log files, timer algorithm that runs independent of the system clock in the PC.
• PEEK Front end on the pumps to prevent corrosion.
• Injected composite parts – Column oven door and instrument base are 50 % lighter – saving on shipping costs.

Best of all the work flow of all methods are unaffected and migration of existing methods to the new Sigma series is seamless.

Pickering continually improves the components and manufacturability of all our products to provide the best analytical tools in the industry.