Users MUST NOW RECORD Analyzer cleaning
Situation
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Over the last year, there has been a notable increase in the
frequency of required service calls on high demand analyzers;
Fortessa -1 and Fortessa-2, and to a lesser extent on Fortessa
X-20
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PM flow facility staff have observed a relaxation of proper
instrument cleaning and maintenance.
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NEW! Users must record cleaning duration after each use of the
instruments.
Background
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Since 2020, PM Flow Facility has had numerous repair service
incidents due to flow cell, sample line and sample waste line
blockage.
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This has caused extended instrument down time which has affected
your ability to plan your experiments and has resulted in
decreased revenue and increased expenses to the facility.
Assessment
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This situation can be avoided if users complete cleaning and
maintenance procedures diligently during and after each use of
the instrument.
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The following precautions are necessary to ensure proper
instrument function:
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15 mins SIT cleaning procedure: 5 mins bleach, water and
sheath run at high flow rate
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1 min sample waste line cleaning procedure: 30 sec bleach
and water
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Filter all samples with cell-strainer caps (#352235, BD
Falcon), 70 µm cell strainers (#352350, BD Falcon) or
nylon mesh with a pore size of 70-100 µm
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Maintain sample cell concentration below threshold rate of
3000 events
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Use better sample buffer: 0.5-2% FBS, 5mM EDTA in PBS/HBSS
- Use DNase if there are large number of dead cells
Recommendation
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New! Starting from May 10, all users are required to record
the 15 mins SIT and 1 min sample waste line cleaning
procedures on the last tube of their experiment under BDFACS
DIVA.
This is the proof of instrument cleaning completion.
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Recorded cleaning time should be within instrument booking
duration.
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After 3 warnings of non-compliance, users’ instrument rights
will be suspended, and refresher training is required to
resume account access.