What does a chromatography service visit actually involve?

There is something quietly reassuring about a service engineer arriving at your lab. 

The appointment is in the diary, the instruments are ready and, for a few hours, the health of your equipment is in someone else’s hands. 

But ask most lab managers what actually happens during that visit – and the answers tend to be vague. The engineer checks things, they replace some parts, they run some tests – but the detail, for many, can be a mystery. 

Yet understanding what a preventative maintenance visit actually covers means knowing what to expect, what questions to ask and what your lab should have in hand once the engineer leaves. 

LC Services is highly experienced in carrying out visits on analytical laboratory equipment – working across Gas Chromatography (GC) and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and spectroscopy systems from a variety of brands, including Agilent, AKTA, Perkin Elmer, Shimadzu, Thermo / Dionex, Waters, among others. Here, we walk through what one of those visits looks like. 

What should we do to prepare for a visit? 

Most labs assume there is more to organise in advance than there actually is. The reality, for the majority of sites, is that preparation is straightforward. 

The main requirement is that your instrument is in full working order ahead of the visit. If there is a known issue, it is worth flagging this to LC Services as early as possible – the more notice an engineer has, the better placed they are to prepare. If your site operates an induction process for contractors, it is also worth factoring in the time this takes, so that it does not eat into the visit itself. 

Beyond that, the key task for your team comes at the end, not the beginning: once the engineer has completed the work, you will be asked to run a standard injection to verify that performance has been properly restored. It is worth ensuring the relevant person is available and that the lab is ready to do this before the engineer leaves. 

What the visit does not require is specialist knowledge from your side. LC Services has spent 30 years working across laboratories of all kinds and sizes, and our engineers are experienced in tailoring their approach to suit each site they visit. 

What does the engineer actually do during the visit? 

This is the part most people are curious about – and rightly so. A visit is only as valuable as the rigour applied during it. 

The work carried out will vary depending on the instrument being serviced, but a preventative maintenance visit typically involves replacing consumable parts and checking that the system is performing to its expected standard. Formal performance testing – such as qualification – is a separate, additional service; if this has been included in your plan or requested alongside the visit, the engineer will carry it out as part of the same appointment. Otherwise, the standard check is completed and you will be asked to run a standard injection at the end to confirm that everything is working as it should be. 

The depth of this process is something customers consistently remark on:

The most thorough service job I’ve seen carried out on any of those instruments.

– Senior technician, customer site in Cumbria

What stands out in customer feedback is not just what engineers do – but how they communicate throughout:

I cannot fault your engineers. They have been brilliant – completing the work to a very high standard and always taking the time to explain the rationale for what they are doing.

– Head of site, Essex

Which service plan is right for my lab? 

LC Services offers four plan tiers, each designed to suit a different level of cover and budget. Understanding where they differ makes it easier to judge which is appropriate for your lab. 

Plan 1 provides a reactive foundation: telephone support and on-site response within 72 hours, with parts, labour and call-outs chargeable as required. Plans 2, 3 and 4 all include a preventative maintenance visit as standard, alongside a 48-hour or better breakdown response time. 

The key distinctions between those three lie in what is covered at each level. Plan 2 includes labour and call-out costs for the visit but parts remain chargeable. Plan 3 adds consumable parts fitted during the visit. Plan 4 offers the most comprehensive cover, with breakdown labour, call-outsand parts all included alongside the visit. 

Bespoke plans are also available, along with additional services – including qualification, user training and one-off repairs – which can be incorporated into any arrangement. 

Which parts and consumables are typically replaced? 

This is one of the questions labs ask most often ahead of a first visit – and the honest answer is that it depends on the instrument and its condition. The consumables most commonly replaced during a visit include items such as seals, filters, lamps and tubing, but what is actually fitted will vary from system to system. 

What is clearer is what the plan tiers mean in practice. Under Plan 3 and Plan 4, consumable parts fitted during the visit are included as standard, removing uncertainty around costs. Under Plan 2, parts are chargeable – but labour and call-out costs for the visit itself are covered. 

What documentation should we expect after the visit? 

A visit that leaves no paper trail is a visit only half done. Documentation matters – for your own internal records and, for many labs, for compliance and quality assurance purposes too. 

Following a preventative maintenance visit, LC Services provides a service report covering what was observed about the system during the visit. If a qualification has been carried out alongside the PM, the documentation is significantly more extensive – reflecting the additional rigour involved. 

For labs with specific qualification needs, LC Services also offers Operational Qualification (OQ) and Re-Qualification (RQ) as additional services that can be built into a visit. 

What happens if the engineer finds a fault? 

It happens. Even well-maintained instruments can surface an unexpected issue during a visit – a component showing early wear, or a performance parameter sitting just outside acceptable limits. 

When that occurs, LC Services’ engineers will advise on the right course of action: whether that means carrying out a repair on the day, sourcing a part and returning, or recommending closer monitoring. 

For customers on Plans 2, 3 and 4, labour and call-out costs for the visit are covered as standard. Should a breakdown occur between scheduled visits, LC Services operates a 48-hour or better response time across the UK, supported by engineers based throughout the country. 

What support is available between visits? 

A visit is designed to prevent problems – but it is not the only line of defence. Between visits, LC Services customers have access to telephone support from qualified engineers and an online breakdown logging portal for reporting issues as they arise. 

That telephone support is worth taking seriously. Engineers diagnose and troubleshoot remotely, often resolving problems without a site visit at all: 

I had a telephone call with an LC Services engineer this afternoon – where he helped us sort out a pump seal issue on an AKTA pure system. Very patient, calm and knowledgeable – talked us through the steps to test where the problem was and get it sorted – and gave a bit of reasoning to those steps at the same time, which is always helpful too.

– Lab Technician, Southampton

Where can I find out more? 

To find out more about what a preventative maintenance visit would involve for your specific instruments, or to discuss a service plan, please get in touch with the LC Services team.