Hardware manual

4-70 Agilent 7500 Series ICP-MS Hardware Manual
4Maintenance
Figure 68 Removing the Skimmer Cone
Cleaning the Cones
Each cone must retain the shape of its orifice to be effective during analysis.
Hold each cone by its perimeter and use only light pressure with your hand as
you clean the orifice.
There are 4 cleaning steps, the first two of which should remove normal
contamination. Perform the cleaning step that is appropriate for the level of
contamination. After cleaning, allow the cone to dry and check the
background, continuing to the next step if the background has not lowered.
CAUTION
• Do not over-clean the cones. It may shorten the life of cones.
• When setting the sampling and skimmer cones down, place them with the orifices
pointing up. Even the slightest pressure can deform the orifice.
• Do not use organic solvents like acetone for cleaning the sampling cone and the
skimmer cone. This is to avoid the molecular ions from the organic substances and
other impurities (especially Na) in organic solvents.