Safety and Handling
• The heating element may be fragile. Exercise care when loading and
unloading samples.
• Use as little sample as possible to reduce thermal load and avoid damaging
the heating element.
• Heating over 300
o
C
• Stages require water cooling when heated above 300
o
C. Contact DP staff (2-9490 or
dp@aps.anl.gov) to obtain water circulator.
• Disconnect the LN2 dewar from the stage before heating above 300
o
C. Leaving the tubing
connected can damage the tubing and/or heater.
• Regarding gas purging:
– Do not use hydrogen or helium (due to high thermal conductivity)
– Do not use a gas mixture containing more than 20% oxygen
– Dilute any reactive gases with 95% inert gas such as nitrogen or argon
– Use a gas flow of less than 60 CC/min to avoid overloading the heating element
• Failure to observe these guidelines may result in heating element failure.
– If you plan to use the stage in a manner not recommended above, please purchase your own
heating element.
• If using LN2 sample cooling, please follow all APS procedures for safe
handling of LN2.