WOW, I got more responses than any post I've ever made. There were too many
to thank you all individually, so I'll thank you all now as a group.
Overwhelmingly it was recommended to build a platform to surround the
magnet. The various reasons given for this are: stable autosampler
mounting, air legs restrict stairs position, large diameter to reach
across, ease of inserting samples for short people, stability during cryogen
fills, and accessing multiple service ports on top of the magnet.
There are examples of both aluminum and wood platforms at these sites:
http://www.msg.ku.edu/~msg/800lab.html ,
http://cunmr800.colorado.edu/ ,
http://nmr900.ca/instrument_e.html ,
http://nmr.uoguelph.ca/images/facility/album/index.html . The cost of an
aluminum platform seems to be in the $8,000 to $15,000 range.
There are a few people using spring-castered stairs, but most of them have
removed the casters to improve stability, or replaced them with a platform.
Stairs were used from Ballymore, Marcon Metals, Manutel, Electric Metal
Fab., Grainger, McMaster-Carr, Coterman, and
http://www.cramerinc.com/products/utility/stopstep/ . One should be
cautious that the ladder or stairs used has no magnetic parts.
Thanks once again,
Jerry Hirschinger, NMR Instrumentation Specialist
Purdue Interdepartmental NMR Facility
560 Oval Dr. West Lafayette, IN 47907-2084
Office: Wetherill 365A
Phone / Fax: (765) 494-5288 / 494-0239
Cellular: (765) 427-3034
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jerry Hirschinger [mailto:hirsch56_at_purdue.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 2:08 PM
> To: AMMRL
> Subject: AMMRL: Ladder, Stairs, or Platform?
>
>
> Hi,
> I'd like to receive any opinions regarding whether to use a
> ladder, rolling
> stairs, or a permanent platform to install and service a large cryostat,
> such as for an 800 MHz NMR. It seems to me that a platform is
> way overkill,
> but a ladder is not stable enough. That leaves rolling aluminum stairs.
> Are there any preferences or dislikes of particular brands? How about
> preferences between tilt-to-roll and spring-castered?
>
> Please reply to me directly, and I will summarize to the list.
> Thank you,
> Jerry Hirschinger, NMR Instrumentation Specialist
> Purdue Interdepartmental NMR Facility
> 560 Oval Dr. West Lafayette, IN 47907-2084
> Office: Wetherill 365A
> Phone / Fax: (765) 494-5288 / 494-0239
> Cellular: (765) 427-3034
>
Received on Fri Jan 19 2007 - 12:48:52 MST