Tight Temperature Control

Food Manufacturing Cold Plate:

Tight Temperature Control
Food Manufacturing Cold Plate

TECA’s smallest Laboratory Air Cooled Cold/Hot Plate, Model AHP-301CPV, offers precise temperature control, protecting food samples in a sensitive application. In this example, our customer has placed food samples into a simple aluminum block insulated with Styrofoam. The AHP-301CPV Cold/Hot plate can be used to control the temperature to a tenth of a degree. This thermal management solution provides a small footprint. More importantly, the samples can be reliably cooled or heated to a variety of temperatures per the end user’s requirements. Our customer reports the rapid transition between temperatures is beneficial.

 

The AHP-301CPV, part of TECA’s extensive “CPV” product line is a UL/CSA, CE-Marked product with a decade of experience serving in laboratories worldwide. The built-in temperature controller and communications software allow for versatility in use. Modifications and additional accessories are available to suit the end user’s needs. Please explore the different sizes and types of cold/hot plates TECA offers here. If we can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would love to hear from you.  Phone 773.342.4900

Another Day, Another “A”

Thermoelectric Cold/Hot Plate Replaces Liquid Nitrogen:

TECA’s cold/hot plates utilize thermoelectric cooling, a solid-state method of heat transfer. Also called the Peltier Effect, this technology is valued for its reliability and lack of maintenance needs. For over a decade, TECA cold/hot plates have been cited in peer-reviewed, published academic research papers. Pictured here is our youngest known researcher, a 7th grade student who designed a physics experiment for her school science fair. TECA could not pass up the opportunity to support a budding scientist and lent our Model AHP-301CPV, free of charge.

thermoelectric cold plate

Lisa, a 7th grader, used the AHP-301CPV in her science fair project, Electric Ice. Following the methods from a paper published in the journal Science, she obtained pyroelectric crystals, which develop an electric field in response to a temperature change. When the pyroelectric crystals are cooled in a controlled manner, their electric field affects the freezing point of the moisture in the air that condenses on them.

Unlike the scientists in the Science paper, Lisa did not have access to large amounts of liquid nitrogen to provide the cooling. Enter TECA Model AHP-301CPV Cold/Hot Plate. The pyroelectric crystals, housed in copper cups, were placed on the cold plate surface. Using the AHP-301CPV’s integral temperature controller and included communications software, Lisa programmed the cooling to ramp down by 2°C per minute, from room temperature to -20°C. A video camera recorded the condensation of the ambient moisture and its subsequent freezing. By comparing the time base of the video with the data captured by the AHP-301CPV’s communications software, Lisa was able to measure the freezing temperature for 3 separate configurations: within a positive electric field, a negative field, and no electric field.

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Where Are All the Cold Plates?

Cooling micro-organisms in a lab:

Recently, a prestigious U.S. university’s research lab contacted TECA. The team needed to cool a 340-well micro plate. Their vendors had many hot plates to offer, but no one seemed to offer a like product for cooling. The lab team was happy to discover TECA products online and the AHP-301CPV proved to be the right fit.

The lab’s 340-well plate is filled with a solution housing micro-organisms. To get the organisms to migrate to the bottom of the wells, the lab needed controlled cooling to 0degC. However, there is a limited temperature range in which the organisms do not degrade so precise control was paramount.

Cooling micro-organisms. Cold Plates

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CONDENSING VAPOR

Condensing Vapor: AHP-470CP in Laboratory Reactor Instrumentation

condensing vapor   cooling vapor stream

In a chemical process (catalysis), the customer uses several TECA Model AHP-470CP Cold Plates to condense methanol out of a vapor stream and collect liquid in the 100 mL glass vessels shown. The AHP-470CP offers a convenient small size and is customizable to the end user’s needs.

Please see the “Options” section on the product data sheet to learn more.

FIBER OPTICS

Fiber Optics:

optics optics

 

A research and development team in Europe uses the TECA Model AHP-1200CPV Cold Plate with a TECA Model TC-1 Tube Chiller attached.

Their process is proprietary but involves optical material and measurements. The TC-1 Tube Chiller is designed to heat or cool fluid without introducing contaminants to the fluid.

The fluid flows through the flexible tubing (various tubing diameters are possible) within the plate surface.

CHEMICAL WASTE TRANSPORT

Chemical Waste Transport:

chemical waste transport

Here’s an application that our engineering crew would love to put into greater use if they could figure out where and how. A specialty gas company called. They wanted to transfer toxic and corrosive liquids from big to small containers for lab use. The process had been taking several minutes with too much wasted product.

They knew because of the conditions a natural head pressure in the big container that they could use a cold plate to cool at the receiving vessel (Ø 1.5″ x 12″ bottle) to create a driving force which moves the fluid.

We didn’t go into the physics of this, we trusted what the customer said and worked with them. When they tried an AHP-1200CP it was fantastic. It turned 4 minutes and a lot of waste into no waste and 40 seconds.

SAMPLE COOLING IN CLEAN ROOM

Sample Cooling (Clean Room):

Sample Cooling Clean Room Sample Cooling Clean Room

 

A research lab in Europe needed to stabilize the temperature of an acid solution within +-0.5 °C. TECA’s AHP-301CPV Cold/Hot Plate was the ideal solution due to its small footprint, versatile features and programmable temperature controller. The customer offered the following comments:

  • The AHP-301CPV is installed in our big clean room*. Here we fabricate our micro/nano devices for electronic and photonic applications.
  • we have now the possibility to do experiments at controlled temperatures and in a really wide range of temperatures. This allow us to increase the reproducibility of our results, which often are so dependent by Temperature.
  • AHP-301CPV keeps stable the temperature of an acid solution inside a beaker (max 6 or 7cm in diameter and max 10cm in height).
  • The possibility to program the temperature controller it’s really interesting, and it will be worthwhile for future experiments. (The customer is referring to the ability to program ramp & soak profiles)

TECA’s cold/hot plates are not specifically designed for clean room use however the customer determined this product would be suitable given the restrictions in this particular clean room.

PHARMACEUTICAL LABORATORY

Pharmaceutical Laboratory:

Keeping drugs cool on the bench

pharmaceutical laboratory

A private biopharmaceutical company formulates drugs that are sensitive to temperature. TECA Model AHP-1200 CPV is their perfect benchtop cooling solution. The customer uses the AHP-1200 CPV Cold Plate in combination with the customer’s own aluminum blocks to keep solutions at 0C during filtration and vial filling operations.

The customer reports, “We have been very satisfied”. This customer provided photo is a wonderful example of the versatility of TECA’s line of Laboratory Cold/Hot Plates. The plate surfaces are appropriately sized to accept microtiter plates and other lab accessories. The temperature can be read from either the plate surface or anywhere a remote sensor can be placed, via the Remote Sensibility™ feature.

LABORATORY APPLICATION

Laboratory Application:

laboratory application laboratory application

 

In March our customer said: “We are most likely going to soon order 1 of the AHP-301CPV.”

First though, can you please provide a quote on the manufacture of a top plate? We would like to fit:

  • 2 x 500 mL Schott bottles (the one I measured was 86mm diameter)
  • 2 x 250 mL Schott bottles (the one I measured was 68mm diameter)
  • 2 x 50 mL Schott bottles (the one I measured was 46mm diameter)

I’d guess that Schott do not make their bottles to too tight specifications, so we would need to allow some room for tolerances. What do you think? These could be arranged in any way that fit best and that minimized any top plate overhang over the cold plate beneath. We can foresee out-growing the 50 mL bottles, so ideally would like the ‘walls’ surrounding the 50 mL wells to be thick enough to later be drilled out so that the wells can accommodate 100 mL Schott bottles (the one I measured was 56mm diameter). The height of the top plate (i.e. depth of the wells) only need be about 70 mm. For the current application, we only need to chill to about 5 deg °C. Does the range we are interested in affect anything?

In May we shipped the custom “Beaker Block: and AHP-301CPV.

COOLING 64 DEGREES BELOW THE AMBIENT

Cooling 64 Degrees Below The Ambient:

cooling 64 degrees below the ambient cooling 64 degrees below the ambient

 

A medical device manufacturer uses a TECA Low-Temperature Cascade System in his design process. The Cascade System consists of a TECA Cold Plate and Cascade attachment. The system offers direct contact cooling to the customer’s load.

In this example, the customer was able to cool his load of Isopropyl Alcohol solution from +25 °C to -25 °C in about 35 minutes. Cooling to such low temperatures allowed the customer to package his very small , invasive medical device.

We received the following feedback from the customer: “I was eventually able to get it down to -38 °C at an ambient temperature of 26 °C. It beats the heck out of the system that is currently being used…This thing is working beautifully. Everyone is most impressed. Thanks!!!”

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