I'm interested to hear responses on this as well. We have shipped back and forth crystals a 100 times and never had a problem until our last trip to the synchrotron. The person at fed ex knocked our shipper onto it's side in order to verify the measurements. The fact that they did it with a big plunk is beside the point given that it has fragile and delicate instruments stickers covering the outside. Anyway, it hissed and a plume of cold air was observed and they refused to accept it. I always do as Stephan has described, however I did return about 100 crystals in caps full of LN2 to the dewar. I believe over time the LN2 in the caps will boil off(maybe the wrong term). Anyway, i brought it back to the lab and kept gently tilting the case until i didn't hear the hissing or see the eflux of cold air and took it back. We called fed ex and got conflicting answers on shipping. The person that refused to ship it wouldn't concede that it was a dry shipper without LN2 and told us we had to fill out hazard forms. The number they gave me to call for aide in filling out this paperwork had a nice lady that knew what a dry shipper was. I explained our procedure. She said to put a sign on the outside that said "Non-hazardous dry shipper". Then, she said to take it back out and tell them to call her if they refused it again. No problem the second time around. I guess it is my fault in the end because there was residual LN2 from the caps, but I thought it would discepate and was negligible. Maybe if i'd waited an hour or so later it'd have been no problem. Who knows? It was a horrible experience flying out the same day as shipping for fear of another problem. I basically had to white knuckle it until they arrived.
-----Original Message----- From: CCP4 bulletin board on behalf of Stephan Ginell Sent: Tue 8/26/2008 12:13 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Dry shippers Hi Peter, At APS/SBC sector 19 all shipping dewars are turned upside down until all LN2 drains out, this is repeated 2-3x times to remove the residual caught in the top. With this method there is no free LN2 remaining in the dewars to leak out. During the upside down tipping the dewars must not be bumped. The ANL shipping Department has been instructed to verify that the dewars are empty of LN2 by turning them upside down prior to shipping. When pucks are not used we caution all users to place vials securely in the dewars using canes with tabs or placing the bottom of one against the top of another and using plastic sleeves, to prevent the pins from being dislodged from the vials. Steve Ginell **************************************************** Stephan L. Ginell, Ph.D. Coordinator, SBC User Program Biosciences Argonne National Laboratory 9700 S. Cass Ave Argonne, IL 60439 (630)252-3972 office (630)218-8122 pager (630)252-6126 Fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] Email On 8/25/08 6:41 PM, "Peter Zwart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear all, > > Due to the presence of residual liquid nitrogen in dry shippers > 'steaming' out of a tipped-over dewar on a Fedex dock, we (PX-ers in > the ALS) have been placed under some scrutiny with regards to > dry-shipping dewars. In particular, I am interested in how people > empty their dewars/pucks/vials and prepare them for dry-shipment and > how they and/or their shipping department checks if the dewars are > empty indeed. > > Cheers > > Peter Zwart This email was scanned with Mcafee's Anti-Virus appliance, but this is no guarantee that no virus exists. You are asked to make sure you have virus protection and that it is up to date.
