Happy Friday!
We recently had a new metal building built to house inventory and the machine shop. The county required that we build retention, for drainage purposes.
While we could have stopped at the above and likely met the requirements- that would be pretty boring.
In true LDARtools fashion- we kept digging.
Of course, it is getting stocked with fish.
Tips from Techs features real maintenance and repair issues – with real solutions from LDARtools’ very own repair technicians.
Hello from LDARtools Repair Shop,
Here’s a quick tip to avoid a costly mistake to your phx21 and your charger. When connecting the charger to the phx21, always line the charger up correctly before trying to insert and make a connection.
If too much pressure is applied and the charger is not lined up, you can break the charger pins on the charging bulkhead on the phx21. Remember that the charger is screwed onto the phx21, never try to remove the charger by pulling. I also recommend checking your charger weekly to ensure that there no damage to the cord.
Correctly connecting the charger may seem like a simple step, but if the charger is not connected correctly valuable monitoring time and money could be lost. Don’t forget we recommend that you charge to phx21 daily for 10 hours (plug in when you are headed home for the day) to achieve a full charge.
If you have any repair, maintenance, or preventative maintenance questions that you would like our techs to address, please feel free to email us at support@ldartools.com
Until next time,
Connor O’Keefe
Colin did an Fantastic job presenting at this years ISA LDAR symposium.
The presentation was a fresh and entertaining reminder that we are in this business to not only comply with the LDAR reguations but to actually find and FIX leaks.
Checkout the following clip:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7lF598Cps4]
LDARtools will be featuring advice from LDARtools’ own repair technicians in a new blog spot called “Tips from Techs”. If you have any repair, maintanance, or preventative maintanice questions that you would like our techs to address, please feel free to email us at support@ldartools.com
Hello from LDARtools Repair Shop,
As many of you may know the phx21 is designed and intended to have minor repairs performed on site. Some of the repairs include replacing the pump, changing out the battery or maybe even replacing the glow plugs.
When performing a repair caution must be taken not to damage any other parts of the phx21. At the LDARtools Repair Shop we have noticed that damage to other parts of the phx21 are occurring during these minor repairs.
Lets take a look at a couple steps that can be taken to avoid abuse, specifically to the FID that is located at the bottom of the phx21.
To begin a repair you must first remove the bottom overmold, which is done by removing the four screws located on top of the padeye plates.
Once the overmold is removed you must remove faceplate to to be able to remove the case.
Now a repair can begin. Once you have completed the repair great caution must be taken when screwing the faceplate back into the FID.
At LDARtools we recommend lubricating the FID screws before tightening into them into the FID. Be sure that the screws are straight on and not going in at angle. If screws are jammed or forced into the FID the screw could break of inside, resulting in a costly repair.
Please feel free to contact us a LDARtools if you ever have any repair questions! support@ldartools.com
Have A Great Weekend,
0mar M.
Repair certification leads to less time & money loss. Have you recently purchased a phx21 for your LDAR program?
Have you changed personnel and no longer have some certified to perform onsite maintenance of your phx21? More and more companies are looking to cut repair costs associated with repairs of their VOC Analyzers. This is possible with the phx21’s ability to troubleshoot and repair 80% of encountered issues onsite, with no requirement to ship the unit to our offices. This not only reduces shipping costs to the repair center and cuts rental costs for temporary equipment, but also reduces lost man-hours due to being without an analyzer for use in the field to complete required monitoring.
For the month of April, LDARtools is offering Level 1 Repair Certification training at our facility for zero cost to the customer.
The training course at LDARtools will help you successfully repair a high percentage of your encountered issues with your phx21 by giving you an extensive look into the internal operation.
With the Level 1 Repair Certification course not only will you be provided with phx21 hardware and operating knowledge, but you will also receive crucial hands-on training.
With this certification you will be able to perform the following:
You will find that with your new knowledge and certification, there is now the opportunity to help your company reduce costs and be a more productive LDAR program.
If you are unable to attend training at our facility, LDARtools can work to arrange for an instructor to travel to your facility to complete this same training for a nominal fee. Coming later this year…a complete online certification course. More details in the near future. To schedule your training today, email support@ldartools.com or call 1-877-788-1110 (ext 1).
Find out simple maintenance steps to keep your phx21 in top working condition.
For the majority of gadgets, devices, and tools that we use everyday, regular maintenance is the key to keeping them running like they should. We at LDARtools feel that your analyzer should be no different. During the design of our phx21 analyzers, we created multiple ways in which the user could monitor the unit’s various operational parameters to allow for an easier way to perform regular maintenance. Some of these points are visual and take a simple glance to check such as the integrity of the orings and the probe tubing. Other checks are done by viewing the details menu on the PDA that is being fed information from the analyzer itself. This allows for not only the ability to have a more successful and faster troubleshooting of the unit, but it allows the more important function of preventative maintenance to be performed at a much higher level than ever before. Below is the LDARtools phx21 Maintenance Check.
We at LDARtools recommend that these maintenance checks become part of the unit’smaintenance routine. By taking just a few minutes at the start of each day, technicians using the phx21 analyzer can verify some key points prior to going out into the field to monitor for the day, leading to increased longevity and lifespan of the unit’s components.
With all of the other maintenance that you perform on various other devices in your life, why should the phx21 analyzer that you are using for YOUR fugitive emissions monitoring program be any different?
Kevin Moses, Director of Operations, shares day two of his visit to Taiwan.
Today I did phx21 repair training with the engineers at Pantech in Taichung today. Really brilliant people with the right tools and a great setup. We were also able to test the new Janam PDAs (new LDAR datalogger) with phx21 LDAR software and our Bluetooth adapter for the TVA-1000b. If you have not seen the Janam spec sheet, you can get it below:
For lunch, we had Mexican food. Yep, Mexican food in Taiwan.. . it was really good, but the most surprising thing is that most of them had never had Mexican food before. Check out this menu. No tex mex here.
The afternoon was filled with more training. They are now a level 1, 2, and 3 repair center. They are equipped and trained to do almost every mechanical repair on a phx21. This will be a major benefit to both them, but our other Asian customers and distributors.
For dinner, we ate Italian food…mushroom risotto was actually quite good and the unidentifiable seafood on the seafood left little to be desired.
Getting old sucks. I know, I know, I’m not that old but jet lag as kicked my ass this trip.
Please forgive me if there are any wild speeliing:-). I am on my tablet and my spell check is not working.
Kevin Moses, Director of Operations, shares day one of his visit to Taiwan.
I am currently visiting Pantech in Taiwan to meet customers and train them on more advanced phx21 repairs. I arrived last night about midnight after 21 hours of travel.
So today we started our day at a gas station. Sniffing wells that would detect or rather collect leaking gas storage tanks. The regulations are quite strange, while we were only looking for gasoline, a FID, PID, and LEL must be used. Can anyone explain that?
After that we ate sushi for lunch- of the 5 of us that was supposed to make it only 3 did. We found this out after we ordered. It’s a long story, but basically it ends with me eating for 3. I was happy for a car ride afterwards, I slipped into a food coma that can only be compared to post Thanksgiving slumber.
In the afternoon I got to tour Pantech’s Taichung shop. Great place. Some photos:
Above: Oscar Kuo. The owner of Pantech. Below: Hugo, one of the engineers.
For dinner we had Texas steak. There’s nothing Texas about it. In fact, they have just about every flag in the world flying from the ceiling, except the Texas flag. I’m going to send them one. Anyway…I got a nice medium rare steak- topped by a massive dose of fennel seeds. Very interesting.
While I ate a steak and clean my plate . The night is young and there more food to eat. It’s time we go shrimping…actually I’m not sure if its shrimping or fishing for shrimp. That’s right, we used a fishing pole (with the words smallest hook) in a saltwater swimming pool to catch massive shrimp. Best part, we the worlds smallest shrimp as bait. Because no activity is complete without food, we had to stop on the way there to get Gua bao– so good.
Good night all. The future is bright.
LDARtools is excited to announce a new partnership and arrival of a new product line from Janam Technologies. The fastest and lightest LDAR Datalogger available for industry wide use. Now available for ordering, the XM66 Rugged Mobile Computer; Rugged, small and light-weight.
The XM66 meets IP54 sealing requirements and withstands multiple 4’/1.2m drops to concrete across a wide temperature range. This unit is also UL Listing (US and Canada) Class I Div 2, Groups A, B, C, D certified.
LDARtools has tested this unit alongside another one of our partners rugged handhelds, the Archer Field PC and found very few indifferences. Both, the LeakDAS Mobile and GuideWare Mobile LDAR software programs performed very well on the XM66. During testing the most common response was, “While it does not look as rugged, I like how small and lightweight the unit feels in my hand.” This response along with the much lower cost compared to the Archer Field PC, makes it a valuable LDAR Datalogger available to the industry. Proven to be a reliable datalogger to be paired with your phx21.
Save money and put the latest mobile computing technology in your technicians hands. Order your XM66 today!
We think the ability to repair your phx21 LDAR analyzer is one of the most exciting parts of owning a phx21. While some other portable FID manufacturers get rich repairing their analyzers, we believe that creating value and growing with happy customers is the path to our success.
Let’s take a look at a typical phx21 repair.
Step 1. Report an issue at LDARtools.com. This report will include the serial number of the phx21, serial number of any on site replaceable part and a log file.
Step 2. An LDARtools Support Tech will contact you after reviewing the log file from your phx21. This log file records everything happening inside your phx21 every 2 seconds and allows us to make very accurate assessments of the health of any phx21. Let’s say your phx21 has a worn out pump and the phx21 pump is under warranty.
Step 3. LDARtools will send you a pump (almost always the same day!). The phx21 warranty even includes shipping to you.
Step 4. You receive the pump (kit shown on right) and install it using the procedure outlined in the manual (starts on page 3-6).
Step 5. When we send the replacement part, we also email a RMA for the pump. This gives return shipping instructions for the old broken part. Basically, you have 3 weeks to ship us this old part back.
Step 6. Celebrate! Not only is your phx21 back up and working, your repair was authorized by the manufacturer and your phx21 is still INTRINSICALLY SAFE!
Because we know that keeping your phx21 up and running is important to you, we try to do everything we can to maximize reliability and uptime. One of the things we do to maximize uptime is our warranty restart program. It goes like this, say you purchase spare parts from our KOS (Keep on Site) list but you don’t use them right away. Most companies would start the warranty on the shipment day, but not LDARtools. Simply shoot us an email with the serial number of the part you installed on the day you installed it, and we will reset your warranty for that part.
Questions? Just give us a call or click below to set up a demo. I am excited about how our customers are using the LDARtools products to change the LDAR industry and I am eager to share their stories with you.
