Vercion en espanol

Tips for a successful trip


For the crystals and the caps

  • Even though most of our beamlines can adjust for the length of the pin (pin plus loop). Please provide us with an empty cap to ensure that we have the right heigth for your samples.
  • In order to use the automounter (robot) at X12B and X29, you will need to have your crystals mounted on the Hampton cap with a pin length of 18mm, so that the final cap and pin assembly measures 22mm from the bottom of the cap lip to the specimen (catalog # HR4-779 or HR8-112).
  • Please label your vials! That will prevent a lot of confusion and a much better naming scheme for your projects.
  • We consider that the bottom of a cane is position #1 and #5 the one at the top (hopefully empty or having the empty loop).
  • The plastic screw caps are difficult to handle and tend to distort after a couple of freeze/thaw cycles. Please avoid sending those.

For the crystals in the dry-shipperPosition of the vials on the cane
  • During the trip to our facility the dewar may be tilted. In order to minimize the number of caps at the bottom of the dewar, we recommended the use of canes  having tabs.
  • Push the vial so that the cap is against the bottom of the tab (see picture). This secures the cap but the vial is then positionned in the narrow part of the cane. To make sure that the vial remains snapped, we recommand the use of a sleeve .
  • Do not put crystals in the top position of the canes i.e, with the cane with tabs the maximun number of vials per cane should be 4.