UWPR Pressure Cell

Pressure cells are designed to pack and load microbore capillaries, such as polyimide coated fused silica. They can be used to pack columns and pre-columns (traps) with a slurry of beads, or to load samples onto packed traps or columns. We routinely use 360 µm OD capillaries with 50 to 150 µm IDs to pack columns and traps with 3 to 5 µm beads of various chemistries (C18, SCX).

Third-party products appear on this page as suggestions only. They do not constitute an endorsement by the UWPR.

Build your own packing station

The documents below will help you set up your own packing station and pack or load columns. You can order the machined parts from eMachineShop (or any other machine shop) or buy a pressure cell from one of the commercial sources below. The column packing and fritted fused silica protocols are on the Protocols & Methods page, and the parts we use are listed on the Reagents & Consumables page.

• UWPR pressure cell for packing capillary columns (pdf)
• UWPR pressure cell material list (xls)

The files below are CAD drawings for the pressure cell body and lid. Download the free CAD software from eMachineShop to view the files:

• UWPR pressure cell lid (ems)
• UWPR pressure cell body (ems)

Commercially available pressure cells

• ESI Source Solutions sells many useful LC-MS consumables, including the Dr. Maisch bulk packing materials.
• Next Advance offers several capillary column packing kits, a Frit Kit for making your own frits (also available from Fisher Scientific), and a full line of accessories to set up and maintain the pressure cell.
• Scientific Instrument Services (SIS) is a distributor of the Next Advance pressure cell as well as the Frit Kit.