Hello,
Our institution is buying a new XPS machine. Now we have to make a decision between Kratos Axis supra and Thermo Scientific Escalab Xi+. For this reason I would like to know about the experience from user's side. So maybe there is some users who has one of those machnes? If so, is there some issues with the equipment which could not be forseen before purchasing?
How often you had repairs (excluding replacement of consumables) Is service was fluent?
Is the Autimatics reliable in Axis supra?
Any comments regarding those machines would be very helpful.
Though my lab has neither instrument we do have a Thermo Scientific K-alpha, so though I can't comment on the instruments I can comment on the company and software.
Thermo has been very easy to work with and very fast to have a scientist respond to question and problems. I have yet to have a problem that was of a scientific nature that a sales person tried to answer first, like is so common among other companies.
As for the software, it works very well but will crash with very long experiments, the crashes don't affect the instrument though. The software also has a lot of built in features that are hard to determine exactly what it is happening. For instance I recently found out that there is an inherent IMFP calculation in the atomic percent that is commonly ignored in other software.
Overall I very much like the system and software, the layout is clear and easy to use with a very intuitive nature. It makes training very easy to do and remember.
The instruments are similar so it depends on your needs mostly. We have the Thermo 250 Xi and a PHI Quantum 2000. Technically, the Thermo is excellent - the spectra are superb and the acquisition rate is very fast. The Ar cluster gun is also a dream come true. The software can be a bit buggy though and the plots aren't as good as that produced by MultiPak for example. The sample holder is smaller than the Kratos and much smaller than the PHI. Keep that in mind if you analyse industrial samples. In terms of reliability, I'd rate the PHI higher than the Thermo, but Thermo has better support.
Kam working with Specs and Scienta, but what I have heard is that the service for the escalab is very bad, whereas the performance is ok. Look for Specs Enviro!
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