
The importance of injection port maintenance has been well documented by instrument and column companies industry wide. Restek has made it easy to carry out this maintenance with the innovation of our EZ Twist Top® injection port.
Injection port maintenance should be performed prior to installing any capillary column, and on a routine basis, based on the number of injections made and the cleanliness of the samples. For optimum system performance, the injection port liner must be free of sample residue, septum particles, and ferrule fragments, so proper maintenance includes replacing the injection port liner, critical seals, and septum. Peak shape degradation, poor reproducibility, sample decomposition, and ghost peaks all are associated with using a dirty liner. Frequent septum replacement prevents fragmentation and leaks. Multiple injections and continuous exposure to hot injection port surfaces will decompose the septum and can create particles that can fall into the injection port liner, where they become a potential source of ghost peaks, loss of inertness, and occluded carrier gas flow. Therefore, changing septum and inlet liners frequently is essential to maintaining optimum system performance.
Using Restek’s unique EZ Twist Top® Injection Port, and Restek Cool Tools (Weldment Removal Tool and Septum Nut Removal Tool), you can reduce maintenance time and frustration, and eliminate tangled gas lines and damage that leads to gas leaks, while avoiding direct contact with hot metal and glass surfaces.
The gas lines are attached to the EZ Twist Top® Shell Weldment (bottom) instead of the weldment (top). What makes this product so innovative is that the gas lines are under the GC cover and do not interfere with routine injection port maintenance. To remove the weldment and access the liner, simply slip the Weldment Removal Tool (included in the complete injection port kit) over the weldment, twist, and remove the weldment. For speed and efficiency, the weldment stays secured in the tool until you are ready to reattach it. Changing inlet liners in original equipment injection ports was complicated by the gas lines and sampling tray. Our injection port makes changing the liner a quick and simple task.