Electron Microscope Environment Survey at King’s College London – protecting your investment
Spicer Consulting’s Dr Robert Christy talks about an electron microscope environment survey at the Centre for Ultrastructural Imaging (CUI) at KCL.
We’re measuring the environment for some new microscopes at King’s College London. The microscope suite has five rooms. That could mean five to seven new microscopes being installed. To protect the investment in these, we want to make sure that the environment is good. As part of our Site Survey Service, we’re measuring magnetic fields, vibration and sounds levels to see if there are any issues.
Tracking down the source of fields
We’re in a large city so some of the problems they face could be caused by traffic, but this site is mainly pedestrian, so that doesn’t seem to be an issue. However we’re close to London Bridge Station and we’re picking up signals from trains. There are other signals but the trains are a big issue here.
We’re also picking up AC fields problems which are linked to the wiring. We therefore also aim to track the source of these fields, whether that’s in the floor, walls or ceiling.
Some of this wiring might be able to be removed when they remodel the rooms, but some of the problems are being caused by wiring which might not be able to be removed. It probably means they will need some kind of field cancellation system.
Informed decisions lead to better images
After completing the survey, we’ll analyse the results and report back to CUI with our findings and recommendations. This will help them make informed decisions on what’s needed to create the best environment for the new microscope equipment.
If you’re planning to upgrade your microscopes, contact us to find out more about our Site Survey Service.