Laboratory

PHARMACEUTICAL LABORATORY

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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

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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.

NeoGraft FUE HAIR TRANSPLANT

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NeoGraft FUE Hair Transplant:

NeoGraft FUE Hair Transplant NeoGraft FUE Hair Transplant

 

Our customer calls the ICE-160 Electric Ice Trays a “dramatic improvement”. He uses several in his medical practice.

From our customer: “We use the ICE-160 during the quality-control and graft-storage portion of our minimally-invasive hair transplant procedures. While hair transplant grafts are outside of the body, they are fragile and susceptible to damage from dehydration and other factors as they are separated from their blood supply. During this delicate phase of the hair transplant, the harvested follicular unit micrografts are now in a special physiologic holding solution at 4 °C using the thermoelectric ICE-160 before and after being counted and sorted and while they are awaiting implantation. This is a dramatic improvement over the use of traditional graft coolers using frozen water which need to be swapped out often during a long NeoGraft FUE hair transplant procedure.

We are confident that this method of graft storage ensures maximum graft viability and helps us maintain exceptional results for our hair transplant patients. The solid metal surface is simple to clean and disinfect after each procedure. Thank you for this great addition to our practice!”

HAIR REPLACEMENT PROCEDURE

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 Hair Transplant Procedure, Follicular Unit Transplant/Extraction (FUT/FUE):

hair transplant procedure

A group of physicians pioneered a hair replacement procedure using TECA’s AHP-1200CPV Cold/Hot Plate. The AHP-1200CPV is a Peltier cold plate. In the photo provided by TECA’s customer, the cold plate keeps hair transplant grafts cool in a solution during the patient’s procedure. The convenience of the AHP-1200CPV cold plate’s built-in temperature controller allows the technician to easily program it to maintain the desired set point.

The AHP-1200CPV is capable of reaching temperatures as low as -15 °C. In the photos here, the set point is programmed to 5 °C. The AHP-1200CPV has an integral universal power supply, so it can be used with any input voltage range from 100 to 240 VAC.

 

ELECTRONIC TEST STATION

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Electronic Test Station:

electronic test station

This is how the TECA Model AHP-1800CPV got its start. An aerospace contractor was interested in a large cold plate for the testing of electronic components. At the time our largest standard cold plate was the AHP-1200CPV. The client requested a larger plate. We added an accessory plate which was 12×18 inches (pictured).

This solution worked well, and we followed it by designing three new products:
AHP-1800CPV, AHP-2700CPV, and the AHP-5400CPV. These products have larger plates, ideal for working with multiple components or larger sized DUTs.

At TECA, we listen to our customers’ needs and push the limits of our designs- this is how we innovate! https://www.thermoelectric.com/about-teca/

MEASURING PLANT METABOLISM

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Measuring Plant Metabolism:

measuring plant metabolism plant metabolism measuring plant metabolism

 

A university-based agriculture research laboratory in Spain is measuring plant metabolism under various conditions. TECA Corporation’s high-capacity version of the AHP-1200CPV (please refer to part number 9-35KB-1-0A0 on our product specification sheet) is used to cool the plant to 22 °C. Precise temperature control is important in this application as the plant’s roots must not get too cold.

There is a significant heat load to deal with as well: the plant is being illuminated with LED lights. Finally, thermal contact is an issue. The plant is inside a glass container, which is inside an aluminum block, which is placed on the AHP-1200CPV Cold Plate surface. Working closely with TECA engineers, the customer was successfully able to integrate the AHP-1200CPV Cold Plate into this unique experiment design and his sensitive thermal management needs were met.

The customer shared with us: “Your suggestion to add water between the glass and the aluminum block is a good one. It does lower the temperature inside, probably by increasing the thermal contact. The fit between the block and the glass is pretty tight. The glass was made first and then the block was drilled out using the glass as a reference. Still, even a tiny space basically ruins the heat transfer, so adding the water seems to fix that. Thanks for your help and suggestions, they were quite useful.”

TESTING MATERIALS PROPERTIES

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Testing Material Properties:

testing material properties

A materials scientist at a state university used TECA’s AHP-1200CPV to conduct published research. The researchers built a thermal fatigue chamber using the AHP-1200CPV.

A 2mm-thick specimen was sandwiched between two laboratory-built hot plates. The hot temperatures were as high as 400 °C.  The AHP-1200CPV cold plate cooled the researchers’ load to 30 °C. Our customer reports that he was able to maintain the 30 °C temperature within +/- 2 °C.

TEMPERATURE CYCLE

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Temperature Cycle

temperature cycle

A university research laboratory uses TECA’s AHP-1200CPV Cascade system to perform nucleation studies. The AHP-1200CPV Thermoelectric Cold/Hot Plate paired with a CCP-31 Cascade attachment creates a low-temperature cooling system. The customer is able to control the temperature of an aluminum dish, rapidly cycling between +20 °C to -45 °C.

The Plexiglas box on top is to contain a dry nitrogen flow, which prevents condensation and frost from forming on the experiment stage.

COOLING CHICAGO

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Cooling Chicago:

cooling chicago cooling chicago

 

Have you ever wondered what the Chicago Skyline looks like after a nasty Noreater blows in off the lake? The creative machinists at Metal Concepts in Chicago constructed this city skyline to highlight the cooling capacity of our AHP-1200CPV product.

The V stands for Versatile and given it’s used in so many industries I guess it’s not hard to see it cooling the city. Interested in cooling a city of your own? Send us some pictures or sketches and we’ll see what the artists at Metal Concepts can do for you.

EQUIPMENT TESTING AND MAINTENANCE

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Equipment Testing & Maintenance:

equipment testing

Three AHP-1200CPV Cold Plates are running continuously and in tandem at 17 °C to monitor satellite equipment. The customer has added air deflectors of his own design. TECA offers standard air deflectors as well. The customer applies approximately 50 Watts of heat to the cold plate.

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