In a world where almost everyone has a consent decree that mandates analyzer drift checks, it is important that we understand and work to prevent any failures. Regardless of which analyzer is being used, here are some quick things to look for in order of frequency:

Leaking Probes:

A leak in your sample delivery system introduces an inconsistent level of ambient air into the sample line during calibration or drift. You have created an accidental dilution probe.

Best Practice:

Inspect and confirm that all o-rings are in pristine condition every day. Put your finger over the probe tip and confirm that there are no leaks in the probe hose, the probe fittings or the inlet filter.

Contaminated Gas Bags:

At 4:00 AM, with a dozen analyzers to calibrate, 500PPM can look a lot like 5000PPM. One misfilled bag could require re-monitoring of the day’s work.

Best Practice:

Carefully inspect each bag and each valve. Make sure that you properly filled and labeled each bag. (Very Best Practice: Stop using gas bags! LDARtools SpanBox and Cal4.0 eliminate this problem.)

SpanBox Flow vs. Instrument Flow:

For a SpanBox to work properly, there must be more gas coming out of the SpanBox than the analyzer that is being calibrated is pulling in. If this is not true, then the accuracy of the initial calibration will be compromised.

Best Practice:

Confirm Instrument Flows is less than the SpanBox Flow at the interval required by your company.

Hardware Failure:

Lastly, there could be something wrong with your analyzer. A drifting H2 regulator, contaminated flow systems or low flows to the detector may cause drift failures. These can be some of the hardest to track down (unless you are using a phx21!).

If your phx21 is malfunctioning, just head on over to the Customer Portal under the support section of our website and report an issue. We will be able to tell from the Log file exactly what changed even if we can’t reproduce it, preventing future lost time due to drifts.

Best Practice:

Report drift failures immediately on the LDARtools Customer Portal.

  

Behind the Shades of LDAR Gra/ey Areas Report is a document magician working remotely from Denver, Colorado. Sarah Nisbet, solo super mom and former kindergarten teacher, now completes special projects for the LDAR Think Tank.

Aside from the Shades of LDAR Gra/ey, she’s also “setting up an answering service with a live person to take messages and emails team members for a quicker turnaround,” she says. Our internal support infrastructure also gets some attention as we continue to find better ways to give the very best service to all our customers.

When asked what she does on the weekends, she says “I enjoy hiking and biking with my girls and our dog Logan in beautiful Colorado!”

But… as good as we are, it is still a remarkable achievement- one that we want to celebrate with everyone who helped to make it happen.

This is our fourth phx21 Brownie Celebration. The others were:

• May 20, 2015
• February 19, 2016
• August 30, 2016

We hope you’ll be a part of this one. All you have to do is send an RSVP email like this by Monday, February 6, 2017:

Send to	jmelegrito@ldartools.com
Subject Line	100% phx21 Celebration RSVP
In the body of the email provide	Your Name Physical Address where you want the Brownies delivered Your Company Name or Site ID How many phx21 friends will be at your celebration

We will do the rest and your Brownies will be ON THE WAY!

Let the Celebration continue!

Scott Mortimer is one of the newest members of the LDARtools family.

He is one of our Technical Support personnel. Scott was born and raised in Florida where he was a Master Electrician and Technical Advisor for a robotic company. His career moved him to Texas in ’96 where he joined an industrial automation company. He managed the Technical Support Call-center and Hardware sales. Working for Oil & Gas clients led him to manage Technical Sales for an OEM building offshore & subsea equipment and services.

Scott has a true passion for customer service and he finds that helping clients resolve issues is most rewarding. In his spare time, you will find him on the water with his wonderful wife Erin.