Maintenance and Troubleshooting of Microscopes
① General maintenance: Biological microscopes should be placed in a dry, cool, dust-free and non-corrosive environment. Wipe the microscope clean immediately after use, then cover it with a breathable dust cover or store it in its case.
② Mechanical system maintenance: Wipe it clean with a soft dry cloth after use, and apply neutral lubricating grease to sliding parts periodically. In case of heavy contamination, clean it with gasoline first and then dry thoroughly. Never use alcohol or ether for cleaning, as these solvents will corrode mechanical parts and paint and cause damage.
③ Optical system maintenance: Gently wipe the lenses of eyepieces and objectives with clean soft silk cloth after use. For stubborn stains, use long-fiber degreased cotton or clean cotton swabs dipped in a small amount of xylene or lens cleaning solution (3 parts alcohol : 1 part ether). Wipe dry with clean soft silk cloth or blow dry with an air blower. Take care to prevent cleaning fluid from seeping into the objective lens, otherwise the lens will be damaged. For the condenser (only available for XSP-13A and 16A models) and mirror, simply wipe them clean after use.
2. Troubleshooting of Common Faults
① Automatic sliding of the tube: This is one of the common faults of biological microscopes. For microscopes with a sleeve-type structure, the solution is divided into two steps.
Step 1: Hold the two coarse focusing handwheels with both hands and tighten them with opposing force to see if the fault is eliminated. If the problem persists, unscrew one coarse focusing handwheel with a special double-column spanner, insert a friction disc, then tighten the handwheel. If rotation becomes stiff, the friction disc is too thick; replace it with a thinner one. The standard state is that the handwheel rotates smoothly, the tube moves up and down freely without sliding down on its own. Friction discs can be punched from waste photographic film or soft plastic sheets thinner than 1 mm with a punch.
Step 2: Check the meshing condition between the gear on the coarse focusing shaft and the rack on the tube. The vertical movement of the tube is driven by the gear and rack. The optimal meshing condition is theoretically that the pitch line of the rack is tangent to the pitch circle of the gear. Under this condition, the gear rotates smoothly and the wear of the rack is minimized. A common wrong practice is adding gaskets behind the rack to press the rack tightly against the gear to stop tube sliding. This will make the pitch line of the rack intersect the pitch circle of the gear. The tooth tips of the gear and rack will press tightly against each other's root. Severe abrasion occurs during rotation. Since the rack is made of copper and the gear is made of steel, the teeth of the rack will be worn down and copper debris will form on both parts, eventually making the rack unusable. Never use this method to prevent tube sliding. The correct way to solve automatic tube sliding is to increase the friction between the coarse focusing handwheel and the eccentric shaft sleeve. There is one exception: when the pitch line of the rack is separated from the pitch circle of the gear, idling and slipping will also occur and hinder tube movement. If the meshing distance cannot be adjusted by tuning the eccentric shaft sleeve of the coarse focusing handwheel, appropriate thin gaskets can be added behind the rack. The adjustment standard: the coarse focusing handwheel rotates smoothly without idling.
