In this section of our Web site, we'd like to give our full support to Oxford Diffraction as a new company. They are highly professional, make excellent equipment, and provide outstanding service. If you are in the market for a new diffractometer, it is well worth having a very serious look at the newest manufacturer in the European market. Sticking with the old guys may not actually be the best bet! The choice is always yours, but our comments on the matter are given on this page.
 

When we looked into a replacement instrument for our aged Nonius CAD4 a couple of years back, we obviously considered the Bruker-Nonius Kappa CCD machine as well as the Xcalibur 2 from Oxford Diffraction (OD). Crystal samples (weakly-diffracting metalloporphyrins, i.e., challenging samples) were sent for data collections on both instruments. While we were unable to use the exact same crystal on the two instruments (for logistics reasons), we obtained comparable data sets from both machines for the same compound (an aluminum complex).

The decision to buy the Xcalibur 2 was manifold. (1) The equipment is clearly well-designed and very sturdily built with all the latest in CCD detector technology, fiber optics, and electronics. (2) The Sapphire1 detector has a gain of ca. 15 e/Mo Ka X-ray photon; that for the Kappa CCD is less at 11 e/Mo Ka photon. (The Sapphire2 gives nearly twice this gain at the same power, but costs quite a bit more.) (3) Oxford Diffraction is clearly on the up. This company may be young, but the rate at which they are bringing new products onto the market is higher than that of the other main European competitor. (4) The diffractometer configuration is quite flexible (Cu or Mo X-ray tubes, point detector if needed, several types of CCD detector, including one for protein work). (5) The software is excellent - powerful, graphical (Visual C++), easy to use, well-designed, and stable. The choice of Windows 2000 as the operating system was important since this is the operating system of choice in our University (> 90% of all users). (6) The instrument is very competitively priced. (This is always important for academics with tight budgets!)
 

The instrument was shipped in very well built wooden crates and arrived on time and in perfect order. This was a good sign from the outset.

It then took 3 Oxford Diffraction engineers a mere 2 days to have the system up and running, properly aligned, and collecting data! We were then given around 3 days of training on operating the software and hardware. This was all we in fact have needed to be up and running by ourselves. The engineers are in contact with OD by phone and by e-mail at all times, so any problems are immediately dealt with during the installation phase.

In our experience the support from Oxford Diffraction has been excellent at all times. For example, the latest interface software was e-mailed to us along with the instructions needed to update the instrument interface. The installation was straightforward and went smoothly. Moreover, when we have had technical questions, OD responded by e-mail on the same day and gave us direct telephonic help on each occasion. David Warner, Leigh Rees, and Andrzej Kowalskii really have been superb on the technical help side.

The question that always comes up in South Africa is "what about customer support?" The general misconception is that a company represented in South Africa will offer the better support option.

We can honestly say that with e-mail, fax, FedEx and the phone, plus Oxford Diffraction's outstanding commitment to service excellence, being an "outpost" as far as the instrument site is concerned has been no problem. Part of this, of course, relates to the fact that South Africa is in the same time zone as Poland and only 1 hr ahead of the UK.
 

The instrument is performing perfectly and we are constantly amazed at the quality of the X-ray data that we are getting. We have started to do several charge density studies now and the data sets have been excellent. We have also been doing variable temperature studies on layered systems; again we manage to get high-quality publishable data from pretty dreadful needle-shaped crystals that have to be cut and often splinter. (If we could grow better crystals we would, however, the structures of the compounds in question permit only one crystal habit - needles!)
 

The 21^st European Crystallographic Meeting was held in Durban during August 2003. We hosted the team from Oxford Diffraction (Andy Dorn, Leigh Rees, and Damian Kucharczyk) during the conference. Despite the weather not being perfect every day, a superb time was had by all. We'd like to thank Oxford Diffraction for their support and reaffirm that these guys are really first class people to be in business with.

Damian and Leigh enjoying a game-spotting trip in a Land Rover at Tala Game Reserve on their first day in South Africa.

A superb young rhino spotted by Leigh from the Land Rover just as we were leaving Tala Game Reserve.