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It is important to emphasize that we can refurbish our gas cell to near new levels reasonable price. One should be aware that gas cells exposed to very active gases in the presence of moisture (water vapor) will experience reduction in IR energy throughput over time. This is caused by deposits and corrosion on the mirrors. Anything that reduces the reflection efficiency of the mirrors will reduce energy throughput. The following table shows cell energy throughput fall off with a reduction in mirror reflection efficiency. The mirror reflection efficiency does not have to fall off too much before one gets poor gas cell IR energy throughput, increased detector noise, and degraded detection levels.
Mirror Relection Efficiency Number of Reflections Throughput 99% 40 67% 98% 40 45% 97% 40 30% 96% 40 20% 95% 40 13% 94% 40 8% 93% 40 5%
Particles and corrosion on the mirror surface will reduce mirror reflection efficiency and therefore reduce the total IR energy coming out of the gas cell. There are other sources of reduced gas cell/FTIR spectrometer performance. The windows of the gas cell can get fogged thereby reducing energy throughput. Transfer optics alignment can effect energy throughput. Gas cell alignment or misalignment can also effect performance. FTIR spectrometer performance of course can and will play an important role in performance. We will help you determine the causes and solutions to reduced total FTIR spectrometer performance. We service all our gas cells. We warranty the cells for lifetime against operational defects in quality or craftsmanship. Optical coatings, o-rings, and windows and the suitability for the application are not expressly warranted. Moisture in the presence of a corrosive gas can produce particles that can fall out on the mirrors, deposition coatings and thin films on the mirrors, corrosion of the mirror surface, or pitting of the mirror and side walls. We refurbish our gas cells by doing the following:
The cost of this refurbishment usually is in the order of $1,500 for a standard gas cell. The cost of special o-rings and special windows would be additional. The result of the refurbishment is a near new gas cell. We will provide a quotation for gas cell refurbishment on a case by case situation. NICOLET GAS CELLS We have re-furbished old Nicolet 10 meter gas cells. Nicolet gas cells have a diamond turned gold coated aluminum mirrors built right into the end plate flanges. We can re-coat the gold mirrors as long as the mirrors can be hand polished and then re-coated. We cannot re-coat these mirrors successfully If the pitting or corrosion is deep. In most cases, we have been very successful in refurbishing Nicolet cells. We can replace the windows, o-rings, and re-nickel coat wetted surfaces as well. We have seen Nicolet gas cells with holes burnt right through nickel coated aluminum side walls.
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