Clean chamber cuts out contaminants

Users of CO2 incubators are greatly concerned by contamination. In fact, it is better to use an instrument which is designed to inhibit contamination than one that sterilises a susceptible chamber after contamination has occurred.

An example of the aclean' design is the Napco 6500 with a completely smooth chamber with no crevices ensuring no harbouring of contaminants and ease of cleaning. Elimination of flat surface contact between shelves and racking is important. HEPA filters provide sterile filtration of new CO2 entering the chamber and of the gases in the chamber.

Researchers are divided upon their preference for CO2 detector and choose between an infra-red CO2 detector, which only needs calibration once a year, and the classical thermal conductivity detector. Currently the best incubator can recover the set CO2 level in just 90 seconds after a 30 second door opening.

Fundamental in culture protection is temperature stability, as even a 1°C drop can result in a 10 per cent reduction in relative humidity with drying out of the cultures.

The company says that a large water jacket will provide excellent temperature homogeneity in general use and full culture protection for hours in case of power outage which an air jacketed chamber cannot do. u

ENQUIRY No 93A

Napco is based in St Herblain, France. www.napco2.com

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