Correcting for carbon coating thickness by C-Kα counts

[Jens Andersen]

Hey JonF. Thanks, that's really a useful piece of advice, it never even crossed my mind, and I will try that on Monday. Probeman, we have the same issues with limb springs and I'm looking into available alternatives in Europe. In the meantime, we coil the old and new springs to slightly increase the stress on the carbon rods. It doesn't seem to affect the sputtering, but it keeps the rods together for longer. It's not ideal ... but it's better.

[Jens Andersen]

To follow up on the thread, we managed to find a local electronics workshop that was able to fix our old Emitech coater. So no more attempts to correct for our failures. Our carbon coats are once again consistent and reliable. The £9.5k Agar coater has now got a new function, for which it is so much more appropriate; as our new (and very expensive) ... door stop. The short story, don't buy junk from Agar without asking for a demo. Why have most reliable suppliers of coaters gone out of business? C'mon it's not rocket science. All we need is a vacuum chamber and some power to the carbon rods, it really shouldn't be difficult.

[JonF]

To follow up on the thread, we managed to find a local electronics workshop that was able to fix our old Emitech coater. So no more attempts to correct for our failures. Our carbon coats are once again consistent and reliable. The £9.5k Agar coater has now got a new function, for which it is so much more appropriate; as our new (and very expensive) ... door stop. The short story, don't buy junk from Agar without asking for a demo. Why have most reliable suppliers of coaters gone out of business? C'mon it's not rocket science. All we need is a vacuum chamber and some power to the carbon rods, it really shouldn't be difficult.

Was this the turbo model? And without the rotary/planetary/tilting stage?
I'm in the market for a new carbon coater myself, and I was contemplating just getting another Agar (/Cressington?) turbo carbon coater with the RPT as the existing one does us well. I'm surprised to hear your feedback!

[Jens Andersen]

I forget the actual model, but it was the one with the large sample chamber. No we didn't get a planetary stage. That's not the problem though, the rod assembly and the evaporation pattern were the problems. Although the chamber would take four thin sections, I coated a piece of paper in there showing the the carbon distribution wasn't consistent over more than max two slides at a time. The rod assembly was very fiddly, and I for one was never able to complete a coating in a single, two or three cycles. Always clean, try, stop, clean, try, stop, x 4-5 or more. The spring that holds the carbon rods together was certainly not strong enough, with the assembly burning solid  before the evaporation cycle finished. It's been such an incredible waste of money and time. It's such a shame they took over Emitech only to outsource the model for cheap production in China without any quality control. If you have an old Emitech, I'm happy to recommend our local repair shop. I wouldn't touch Agar for coaters again.