Chemistry International
Vol. 24, No. 1
January 2002
Web
Reviews
Spare Parts on
the Web
by
John Joyce
Many a
time you may feel hostage to your instrument vendor for spare parts.
Indeed, some vendors go out of their way to hide the generic identity
of the parts used in their systems. With access to the World Wide Web,
dependence on specific vendors has been greatly decreased. Whether you
are attempting to locate full backup units or just a part, the web offers
many resources.
Using
a search engine and performing a search on "spare parts" and the vendor
or instrument name will often provide you with promising leads. If you
want to start with something more focused, you might want to try performing
your search within a site such as ChemIndustry.com <http://www.ChemIndustry.com>.
There are other sites, such as Used-line <http://www.used-line.com>
and labX <http://www.labx.com>
that specialize in locating spare equipment, primarily full systems,
but some spare parts as well. You can also locate vendors, such as Thorn
Scientific Services Ltd. <http://www.thornta.com>,
that specialize in spare parts for a particular class of instruments
- in this case thermal analyzers. Of most general interest are firms
such as MediBix <http://www.medibix.com>
that specialize in providing spare parts for laboratory equipment, be
it centrifuges, ovens or spectrometers.
This
site can even display schematic drawings to ensure you have specified
the correct part. If MediBix does not have the part in its databases,
it has a technical service department, mandated to locate the part within
four hours.
John
Joyce <[email protected]>
is a contributing writer to Inside Laboratory Management. Reprinted
with permission from AOAC International.
http://www.ChemIndustry.com
http://www.used-line.com
http://www.labx.com
http://www.thornta.com
http://www.medibix.com Se