Advanced control systems occupy state-of-the-art laboratory freezers. Inside each one, microprocessors control the temperature so that the cabinet environment remains within a slender tolerance range. The scientific attributes of every unit include enhanced storage layouts, humidity management systems, and a number of functions that target sample protection. Don’t take our word for it, though, not when the applications for these science-oriented refrigeration units speak for themselves.
Skirting Zero Celcius
The refrigeration unit isn’t being pushed hard, yet there’s still much to protect. Ideally, we’re talking about a cabinet that keeps biological samples as cold as possible without freezing them. General soft tissue storage takes place here, at a point where ice crystallization won’t damage cell walls. Alternatively, there are provisions for deep freezing soft tissues, but this measure involves a cryogenics facility, equipment that employs a special refrigerant. Otherwise, whole blood, urine, pharmacological supplies, and cultures are commonly stored in this low-temperature unit.
Entering the Arctic Climate
Reactant biological materials are subjected to environmental conditions that hover around the -20°C mark. From here, metabolic processes are suspended. A laboratory freezer addresses enzymatic storage issues by dropping the temperature rapidly until it maintains a linearly accurate temperature at or around this subzero level. Other storage materials that require this frosty setting include vaccines and chromatography apparatus. It’s worth noting, though, that there will be some crossover, a blurring of the thermal lines that depends on the stored material and current lab storage guidelines, as mandated by the scientific and medical community.
Plummeting Into Deep Freeze Territory
The precision-calibrated LCD display on a laboratory freezer descends below the -30°C mark when spoilable materials and temperature sensitive biosamples require a stable storage cabinet. Plasma storage freezers use this operational profile. Likewise, certain vaccines must be stored at this low temperature if the medicine’s efficacy rating is to be maintained. Beyond this point, the bottom drops out as freezers become cryogenically-capable. This ultra-low temperature range drops below 150°C, with liquid nitrogen and other near solid inert gasses acting as the refrigeration medium.
Upright lab freezers with stainless steel doors compete with chest units for space in research facilities and hospitals. They begin freezing at the 0°C so that blood and urine, medicines and cell cultures can enter a state of stasis. Below that point, proprietary refrigerants and liquefied gasses are used to fully freeze metabolic action within biologically delicate vaccines and biosamples. Again, computer-controlled thermostats govern this precise drop in thermal activity while also managing the humidity level.