Oxford Instruments Andor
Aiden Boyce, John Oreopoulos
Workshop Room 4B
As a manufacturer of microscopes, our primary goal is to design and construct instruments which produce accurate images of specimens with the highest possibly quality. Many factors affect and limit image quality, however, including the mechanical and electrical aspects of various motorized components, along with the physical properties and the inherent variability of the optical components in use. Delivery of the best possible micrographs therefore requires an intimate understanding of these factors and the development of methods to monitor their effects during the manufacturing process.
Inspired by and building upon the success of the Quality Assessment and Reproducibility in Light Microscopy initiative (QUAREP-LiMi), Andor has established a rigorous factory quality control (QC) program which enables quantitative light microscopy with guaranteed and measurable performance specifications. This QC program has also been extended into the field where the same factory methods are implemented by field service engineers to ensure that research scientists receive hard data on all critical performance metrics that are required to reliably achieve experimental replication.
IQ (Installation qualification) is our new approach that not only certifies our Benchtop Confocal Microscope product series are set up correctly, but also that system end-users are formally trained in its fundamental operation on day 1 and given the necessary tools and standard samples to enable basic on-site QC and instrument performance monitoring. Operational Qualification (OQ) is our more stringent field service QC program that calibrates and benchmarks the system operation parameters within the customer’s facility in an ongoing manner to ensure consistent system performance that meets or exceeds published specifications.
This presentation will showcase Andor’s unique microscope testing infrastructure pipeline, from factory to field, and highlight how these QC procedures have been transformative for production output and enhanced the capabilities of our field service engineers. Service cases where QC protocols have rapidly identified and led to the rapid resolution of various quality issues with minimum downtime will also be discussed.