[labnetwork] Help ... Please !!! ... our safety guys have not clue about gas cabinets ...

[Hughes, John S]

Hi Leo,

With the hazardous gases, our procedures require that tool users open the gas cylinders when they start their process and close them when finished. (Oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and a couple others are usually always kept open.) So our toxic gas cylinders will be closed over the break. (That doesn't necessarily mean that the lines get evacuated/purged back to the cylinders.)

I'm not sure why you think you might get air bubbles in the lines if you close the cylinders. Perhaps you could elaborate.

 -- John

-------------------------------------------------------------
John S. Hughes                         Office: (217) 333-4674
Associate Director                        FAX: (217) 244-6375
Laboratory Operations                     hughes at illinois.edu<mailto:hughes at illinois.edu>
Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
3114 Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory
208 North Wright Street
Urbana, Illinois  61801              http://mntl.illinois.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------

On Dec 22, 2010, at 2:45 PM, Leonidas E Ocola wrote:


All,

Can anyone tell me if you shut the valves of the gas bottles in your
cleanroom
during winter break ? Our safety guys are under the impression that it is
hazardous to leave them open. They will only listen to me that they are
wrong
if other labs leave them as is.

(We have gas cabinets with gas alarms, shutoff valves, manifolds, etc. They
are hooked up to our RIE tool with 12 sticks for different gases)

I do not want to shut all the gas bottles for winter break because I
believe it is
unnecessary and in some cases could introduce air bubbles into the line
which could affect my RIE recipes if I do not flush the line.

If you can reply within the next few hours I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Leo

--
Leonidas E. Ocola, PhD
Nanofabrication Group

Center for Nanoscale Materials
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 South Cass Ave, Bldg 440, Rm A129
Argonne, IL 60439

Email: ocola at cnm.anl.gov<mailto:ocola at cnm.anl.gov>
Phone: 630-252-6613
Fax :  630-252-5739
Web:   nano.anl.gov<http://nano.anl.gov>
http://nano.anl.gov/docs/people/ocola.pdf



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