Error conditions

arktic's cloud telemetry data enables reliance to monitor the state of each system.

Additionally, customer emails can be added to the system, so that you are also notified
immediately if arktic has a problem.

The following error conditions are reported by email:

Not posting data
Offline
Air supply failure
Air supply failure
Air supply failure
Humidity out of range
Pressure out of range
Duty cycle out of range

If you have set up the optional BMS connection, the following conditions will trigger an alarm:

AC power lost
Fuse blown
Chamber temperature out of range
Cycle duration too long
Over pressure
Over current
Under current
Compressor over temperature

Recovering from power failure

In the event of a power failure, arktic has a built in UPS which can provide power to the control
system for approximately 20 minutes. Note that the refrigeration system is not covered by the UPS.

When power failure is detected, the system will continue processing for one minute (to allow for small power glitches). After this time-out, the control system will complete its current task and place arktic into a state from which it can resume automatically.

If power is restored before the UPS loses charge, refrigeration will resume and the system will
continue automatically. If the UPS has shut down completely the refrigeration will resume automatically but order processing will need to be resumed manually.

Prolonged power failure

If power is unavailable for a prolonged period the store will begin to warm. The warm up
characteristics of differently filled stores are illustrated in the graph below e.g. it will take approximately 19 hours for a half full store to warm to -60°C.

Recovering from air supply loss

If the dry air supply fails arktic will complete its current operation and return vials to the store if
retrieving. When the supply is restored, arktic will continue processing orders.

Refrigeration failure

arktic is supplied with a backup refrigeration system, if the primary system fails this will start
automatically when the chamber temperature rises more than 8°C above the setpoint.

Protruding objects

The drawer uses a height sensor to ensure that there are no protruding objects in the rack during
loading. It is set to detect a protrusion greater than one millimetre. Typically, this will catch the
following types of failures:

A protruding vial – occasionally vials can sit high in their holes
A lid has been left on a rack
The rack is not seated correctly in the nest
Loose caps
Incorrect vial/rack combination

If arktic detects this failure it ejects the tray, with an error message.

Vials locked or stuck in rack

If a vial cannot be lifted from its rack arktic will skip it and process the
remainder of the rack. Some possible causes for this happening are:

Vial is locked in place, in a locking rack
Debris in the rack
The vial is coated in liquid or ice

Missing cap

If a rack is loaded containing a vial with a missing cap, arktic will detect this and skip the vial.

Bulging O-ring

Some vials with an internal thread use an O-ring to ensure an adequate seal with the cap.
However, the caps must not be over tightened or the O-ring can bulge. arktic will detect this and skip the vial.

Unreadable barcode on vial

The system can be configured to handle unreadable barcodes in two different ways:

Store and assign a dummy code – the vial will be stored and the vial assigned a dummy code e.g. ‘unread-001-00000056’, where the first three digits of the code identify the store ensuring the code is unique across multiple systems. The remaining digits are an incrementing number.
The vial will be marked as unread in the report file. You can request that reliance retrieve
unread vials at a service visit.
Leave vial in the rack – if the code cannot be read the vial is left in the rack.

Unreadable barcode on rack

If a rack is loaded with an unreadable barcode or no barcode, arktic will detect this and eject the
tray, with an error message. This ensures that a rack cannot be loaded incorrectly i.e. rotated through 180° swapping A1 and H12.

Single hard disk failure

If the PC hard disk fails you may see the following message.

Click on Cancel and contact reliance.

arktic's PC has a second hard disk fitted which will
allow the system to continue operating.

Catastrophic hard disk failure

Contact reliance in the rare case that both hard disk drives fail. It is possible to rebuild the
database from the actual content of the store. Each vial found in the store will have its barcode read and its location recorded.

Other errors

arktic's control system attempts to recover automatically from most errors; however this is not
always possible. The software will endeavour to return any vials to the store and then report an
error.