Guidelines and Procedures for User Facilities

AMI provides trained professional staff to assist and guide users, provides workforce development assistance, and carries out fee-for-service activities. While we employ best practices and quality-control measures for the generation of scientific data, samples prepared or microstructures fabricated, AMI does not guarantee specific results for scientific experiments.

In pursuit of scientific discoveries, all individuals interacting with AMI on-site or off-site can expect a respectful, collegial, and fair work atmosphere with open communication and a culture of valuing collaboration between users and staff.

AMI instruments are supported through either vendor service contracts and/or staff maintenance. User rates for instruments and staff time are reviewed at least annually and support the partial recovery of the cost of operation and periodic maintenance. Users should anticipate at least inflationary changes in their project budgets.

All users are expected to always follow appropriate laboratory safety protocols.

Utilization of any equipment within AMI must strictly follow the established standard operating procedures (SOPs) that are being provided during training. It is expected that users handle equipment safely with the utmost care and diligence.

In the case of equipment failure, please immediately notify the equipment manager to minimize additional damage or downtime.

In the case of emerging problems during equipment operation, users are expected to stop work, apply only those troubleshooting measures they are trained in, and notify the equipment manager.

Equipment damage incurred during normal operation may occur occasionally. Users are expected to notify the respective equipment manager immediately. Users are responsible for the full cost of equipment repair only in cases of gross negligence during operation (e.g., not following SOPs or individual training guidelines) or in cases when the equipment manager has not been notified of equipment failure. At the discretion of the equipment manager, the user access may be suspended and re-training may be necessary. In severe cases, revocation of user privileges may be necessary after consultation with either the Associate Director or Executive Director. 

Instrument training is exclusively provided by AMI equipment managers and is designed for trainees to learn the safe and efficient operation of the instruments.

User training by other individuals (e.g., superusers, instrument vendors, etc.) requires written approval by the facility manager.

Instrument training is not intended to provide theoretical background and/or academic training to solve specific research needs.

Users are directed to academic courses for those needs.

To be granted instrument and laboratory access, users must complete training, return the post-training survey, have an active FBS account, and pay the required training fees.

AMI users are considered in the following categories:

• trainees: users currently undergoing instrument training
• trained users/users: individuals trained with at 8-hour work day access on at least one instrument
• superusers: trained users that have gained 24-hour access on a specific instrument

Individuals interested in becoming users of AMI are requested to establish an account on the FBS billing and user management system.

To request hands-on training on specific instrumentation, please schedule your training.

Before enrolling, trainees must ensure that they are physically present for all scheduled training sessions. At the discretion of the equipment manager, trainees who miss the attendance of critical training sessions can be returned to the waitlist to re-start training and may incur additional charges.

Depending on the instrument or service, training charge for the variety of instruments are posted on the AMI facilities user fees schedule. Any re-training or advanced training on additional capabilities beyond the initial training will be billed through assisted utilization rates.

Once training is complete, the trainee must demonstrate adequate and safe operation of the instrument prior to being granted ‘trained user’ status. Failure to do so will result in re-training at the applicable recharge rates.

Experienced users can request ‘superuser status’ to gain unrestricted 24-hour access to specific instruments. Please contact the AMI facility manager for approval, who will review prior utilization and ensure that the user can proficiently and safely operate the instrument and confidently perform basic troubleshooting without the need for consultation with AMI equipment managers. ‘Superuser status’ is a privilege that may be revoked at any time in the event of non-compliance with the SOPs or this Policy Manual.

To ensure successful experiments and safe operations, users are no longer considered proficient for the operation of equipment if they have not used it for more than 3 months. At the discretion of the facility and/or instrument manager, a refresher training or complete re-training may be required at the applicable rates.

Training on the following techniques can be directly requested: scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atom probe tomography (APT), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), optical microscopy, digital microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry/thermal gravimetric analysis, and nano/micro-hardness testing. Training on Focused Ion Beam (FIB) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) requires prior completion of training on SEM.

All users and staff are expected to follow the University of Alabama Code of Ethical Conduct.

Trained users/users are permitted to utilize equipment weekdays (outside of university holidays) between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm, when AMI equipment managers are available for consultation. Utilization at any other time requires superuser privileges.

Instrument time needs to be scheduled using the FBS system. Utilized instrument time will be automatically billed as the time utilized or time reserved, whichever is longer.

It is expected that users begin instrument utilization withing 15 minutes of the reserved start time. Other users may claim the reserved time if the instrument is not utilized within the first 15 minutes of the reserved time.

“No-shows” will be billed at the standard rate for the reserved time during which the instrument was not utilized by anybody else.

Cancellation policy: Reserved instrument times need to be canceled at least 24 hours before the reserved start time. Late cancellations will be billed at the standard rate for the reserved time during which the instrument was not utilized by another user. Exceptions to this are unexpected instrument downtime that causes a user reservation to be canceled.

When an instrument undergoes a need for service (i.e., “is down”), reservations during that period are automatically canceled and will not result in a cancellation fee. Users are responsible for reserving a new time slot once the instrument comes back up for usage. Reservations are not shifted or automatically rescheduled in response to instrument downtime. AMI staff will attempt to accommodate users who lost their reservations due to unscheduled maintenance.

AMI staff will inform users through the FBS email listserver of any instrument downtime as soon as practicable. AMI appreciates the users understanding for any unexpected downtime and will ensure to re-establish full functionality of equipment as soon as possible.

Trained users can hold only one reservation for the same instrument and the same billing code per time. Once a session is complete, the user can reserve a follow-up time on that same instrument. If multiple reservations (or an extended time on an instrument) is required on a singular instrument to accommodate specific experimental needs, please contact the AMI facility manager.

AMI recognizes that many users, including AMI staff, are working on multiple projects at a given time. Users are permitted to schedule other reservations for different instruments using the same reservation billing code, or multiple reservations on the same instrument if different billing codes are utilized.

Due to time constraints involved with installation, experiments requiring direct modification to instruments, extended (i.e., multi-day) reservations can be granted through contacting the AMI facility manager.

Users can only reserve time for their own work and are not permitted to place reservations for others. If users reserve time for other users, both users can have their access suspended.

The user scheduling a reservation is responsible for equipment operation.

Any exceptions to the reservation policies may be granted by the AMI facility manager in case of extenuating circumstances.

LEAP: Users are permitted only one reservation at a time with the reservation being as long as 48 continuous hours. The reservation is independent of normal university operating hours, evenings or weekends.

SPECTRA: Only users who are proficient with the operation of conventional TEM instruments (such as the Thermo Fisher Talos) and retain superuser (24-hour access) privileges may be trained on the operation of the Spectra instrument.

In Situ Capabilities: any in situ sample holders, including the DENS Solution Wildfire heating platform, the Protochips Fusion X electro-thermal platform, and the Bruker nanoindenters (PI-95 and PI-89) may be subject to additional hourly utilization rates as well as costs for consumables. Users of these capabilities are required to provide their own consumables (including MEMS devices, indenter heads, etc.). Please see below and contact the respective AMI staff member(s) for detailed information. To improve success for in-situ experiments and ensure safe operation of complex equipment in-situ capabilities are accessible through staff assistance and are subject to the appropriate staff-assisted hourly charge. Training in the operation of the in-situ instruments can be requested based on the need and frequency of anticipated utilization. Please contact the respective equipment manager.

Bruker PI-95 and PI-89: both in situ nanoindentation holders are extraordinarily delicate and subject to unusually high repair cost in the case of required maintenance. Therefore, the following set of special operational policies are required:

1. considering the delicacy of the holders the standard operating mode is “assisted use” under the direct observation of AMI staff.
2. individuals that require continuous and frequent utilization can request training to become an independent superuser.
3. users/trainees are required to be a) proficient in the utilization of benchtop nanoindenters and b) proficient in the utilization of either the Apreo2 SEM or the Talos instruments (as applicable).
4. all users (including assisted utilization) are required to purchase their own consumables, i.e., indenter tips.
5. an hourly recharge rate is applicable to the utilization of the PI-95 and PI-89 holders in addition to the microscope usage time. Utilization fees support routine maintenance of the in-situ platforms. In the rare case that the actuator fails during operation, users will share the repair cost with AMI in equal proportions. Note that this cost-sharing is applicable to both assisted and superusers. In the case of negligence by a user/superuser, e.g., actions that are in violation of provided training procedures, users/superusers are required to cover 100% of the cost of the necessary repairs.

Protochips Fusion X: this double-tilt in-situ TEM sample holder requires the utilization of specialized MEMS devices for each sample, which are considered consumables. Users need to purchase the MEMS devices directly from Protochips, Inc. The holder is available for utilization on the Spectra and Talos instruments through staff-assisted experimentation. Independent utilization by superusers requires specialized training and may be requested from the equipment manager.

In some circumstances, AMI has been requested to support equipment that was not initially acquired by AMI. In such cases AMI needs to take on responsibilities for training and financial support for the operation of the instrumentation. The requester will contact one of the AMI directors to initiate a review and subsequent recommendation by the Facilities Advisory Board whether the equipment should become part of AMI. A decision about the request will subsequently be rendered by the AMI Directors. Instrument operation under AMI requires the existence of a suitable user base to recover the cost of operation and maintenance, feasibility to provide high quality user training, and appropriate staff expertise. The instrument owner is requested to provide the necessary information for an adequate review. If approved, an official equipment transfer within UA inventory must occur. All equipment administrated and maintained by AMI is subject to campus-approved utilization rates for any user, including the equipment owner. Once an instrument is fully integrated in AMI operations, all instrument training will be carried out exclusively by AMI staff.