Race against time, we try our best to restore the water-soaked devices of Chinese users!

There was a torrential downpour in Zhengzhou of Henan Province on July 20, 2021. That extreme rainstorm was called ‘a case of the millennium’ and the precipitation was near the average annual rainfall of Zhengzhou, with a rain capacity of 201.9 mm in only one hour, 552.5 mm in a single day and 617.1 mm in three days, in other words, the rain pouring in the three days was equivalent to that in a year in the history. Malvern Panalytical China responded to the sudden disaster and provided free on-site repair for the users, we gained the users’ praise and our good deeds were reprinted by at least 2 media.

It has been more than a month after the 720 rainstorm in Zhengzhou, Henan, urban flooding caused by heavy rain significantly affects the scientific research and production of users in Henan. Malvern Panalytical received emergency repair information from the disaster areas one after another since July 23. Many users’ devices were affected with damp or water inflow, or damaged due to sudden power failure; some devices in the laboratories located in low-lying areas were soaked by the flood-carrying sediment, microbes, and garbage, resulting in enormous losses.

On July 26, Malvern Panalytical rapidly organized and launched the user care action in disaster areas themed ‘Bear the disaster together, Henan can manage it’ by offering free on-site check and repair service for the users in the disaster-affected areas.

​​​​​​​Almost all large analytical instruments in the Center for Modern Analysis and Gene Sequencing of Zhengzhou University were soaked by water and broken, among which, a Malvern Panalytical Empyrean X-ray diffractometer (XRF) was soaked in water deeper than 50cm for more than 12 hours. Malvern Panalytical successively assigned 2 engineers, Li Bo and Li Hang, to carry out cleaning, air drying, and high-pressure gas drying for many times for the main soaked parts.

The engineer is cleaning up the circuit board
Mud in the Soaked Circuit Boards

When there was a repeated outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of July, Liu Suobing, a Malvern Panalytical engineer based in Zhengzhou, assisted the users on the site to restore the instruments. For the purpose of epidemic prevention and control, he stayed in Zhengzhou University for more than a week till the instruments had been restored. On August 27, the instruments passed the overall power-on and high-voltage (60kV) test. It was confirmed the instruments can be used normally and they had almost returned to the state before being soaked.

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The engineer is disassembling the instrument control unit
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The engineers are cleaning Empyrean cabinet
The circuit board is air drying

Axios, X`Pert3 Powder of Precious Metals & Jewelry Quality Supervision and Test Center of Henan Institute of Product Quality Supervision and Inspection was soaked in water of above 70cm or so. Malvern Panalytical assigned Liu Suobing to clean and repair it; he dismantled the XRF, carefully cleaned the circuit boards and other parts and dried them in the air. At present, the cleaning of XRF has been completed, the XRD is being cleaned. The user expressed particular appreciation and many thanks for engineer Liu’s earnest work and appreciated the company for its support.

The restored Empyrean can test samples normally
The teacher of Zhengzhou University is expressing his thanks to the engineer
The engineer, Liu Suobing is dismantling and cleaning the Axios luminoscope

A Mastersizer 3000 laser particle analyzer of Henan Xinxiang Tianli Lithium Energy Co., Ltd. was entirely soaked in water for about 10 days. The engineer went to the site and tested it, and then judged it cannot be restored in a short period due to too long time of soaking. To help the user for their resumption of work and production, Malvern Panalytical deployed a model machine from the Shanghai laboratory and borrowed it to the user, to facilitate it to put into production as soon as possible.

​​​​​​​The rainstorm is heartless, while the people have love. The staff of Malvern Panalytical, in the face of the disaster, showed a strong sense of responsibility and a high degree of professionalism, as of August 30, had provided repair and maintenance service of more than 350 hours for the users in the disaster-affected areas. Meanwhile, the process also revealed the reliable quality of Malvern Panalytical instruments which can be restored to work normally after cleaning even though being soaked in water for a long period.

Mastersizer 3000 soaked in the flood for 10 days
The laboratory model machine borrowed to the user has been put into production

The efforts of many engineers and the support of company leaders have been recognized and praised by users in the disaster areas and also demonstrate Malvern Panalytical’s sense of social responsibility and people-oriented service spirit to the users in Henan and even all over China.