Mobile Instrument Carts

Cluttered, disheveled and broken were three words that could have described our instrument carts after our first summer long deployment testing air samples in homes.  I took inspiration from some other Ionicon PTR-MS instrument carts and set about building these two systems, MARC and PeTeR. Both systems were constructed out of 80/20 extruded aluminum.

​

PeTeR houses the PTR-MS that our lab used for chemical analysis. A very sensitive and heavy instrument, the cart had to act as a stabilizing exoskeleton On top is an integrated monitor to watch real time data. Additionally it houses a multiport sampling system that is integrated into the structure. 

​

MARC (Mobile Awesome Research Cart) needed to have a similar platform, but had a lot more hoses. With the help of a variety of switching sampling manifolds I built (some seen here) these instruments housed on MARC were able to take samples from four locations simultaneously.  All the instruments and back up power supplies had to be secure so that nothing would fall off the cart during transport.