-------------Weitergeleitete Nachricht-----------------

Von:    Walter Esinger, [106523,267]
An:     Dr. Ian Montgomery, INTERNET:ian.montgomery@bio.gla.ac.uk
        Sabine Schöllhammer, [101776,3346]

CC:     Siegbert Holtermüller, [106535,227]
        Steve Cham, SteveCham1

Datum:  16.11.98 12:01

BE:     Cryostats

Dear Dr. Montgomery and Histonetters,
On behalf of Leica Microsystems Nussloch please allow me to comment on your
recent note on the Histonet regarding the Leica cryostat "bummers".  Your
message was certainly important enough to be communicated via the Histonet,
however, I believe it is fair enough to briefly explain what really
happened and how we are treating this situation. This is the reason why I
wish to complete your message today. It is true, that 3 Leica cryostats CM
1900 at an institute in Glasgow did not perform in compliance with the
instruments specs and the customer's expectations. These units did not show
the reproducibility of the section thickness at 20 microns settings. The
variations were visible in serial sections after exposure of the materials
to radioactive sensitive film. Leica Service has checked the instruments
and found the potential route cause in a mechanical part of the microtome
that we purchase from an external source. In order to get the customer back
to business as fast as possible we exchanged the three units with three new
instruments from a different lot than those units which showed these
problems with the mechanical part. After the replacement we found out that
the reasons for the instruments failures were more complex so we went into
an additional thorough investigation. Currently, our Service Support is at
the customer's lab to fix the cryostats. This is the situation now.
I hope you did not misunderstand my involvement as a vendor, but it is our
policy to discuss customer complaints and potential instrument problems
frankly and we wish to avoid any misunderstandings within the Histonet
society.
Thank you for your understanding.
Walter Esinger
Director Intl. Marketing /  Sales
Leica Microsystems Nussloch GmbH
http://www.hbu.de