LABORATORY EQUIPMENT

Laboratory Equipment:

laboratory equipment laboratory equipment

A research organization had a problem with overheating of their equipment in a chemical-vapor deposition reactor TECA’s AHP-301CPV Cold Plate cooled the equipment and improved the performance of the customer’s system.

The customer was able to avoid system failures, which allowed the completion of a research project.

ANODIZING ALUMINUM

Anodizing Aluminum:

anodizing aluminum
A technological university in Asia chose TECA’ s thermoelectric cooling Model AHP-800MSP Magnetic Stirring Cold/Hot Plate to anodize aluminum. The researcher’s process required a temperature of 10 °C.

The AHP-800MSP‘s universal input voltage feature (100-240 VAC) allows it to be used anywhere, making it a perfect, off the shelf choice for our customer in Asia. He wrote to us: “It is quite good. Also the manual is quite clear and quite user-friendly. Thank you.”
Unique to this product is the adjustable nature of many of its features: stir-bar speed, fan speed (for noise reduction), temperature sensing (internal or external) and more.

The AHP-800MSP can even accept beakers of various size by adding optional sleeves. The solid-state thermoelectric construction is low-maintenance. There are no filters to change and no moving parts except for the fans. Our products use robust thermoelectric modules and boast a long service life.

ELECTRONICS ENCLOSURE COOLING

Electronics Enclosure Cooling:

electronics enclosure cooling

Customer plans to use the TEC unit to regulate the temperature of some electronics in an outdoor enclosure. The electronics will be mounted to a cold plate where they can be cooled by direct contact with the TEC. The walls of the enclosure will be insulated to reduce thermal losses to the outside world. The hot side of the TEC will be in a separate, ventilated part of the enclosure to carry away waste heat. Customer will provide longitudinal air flow along the heat sink, so the built-in fan will not be necessary.

Originally considered using a solid-state air conditioner to cool the entire enclosure, but now prefers the direct-contact method for lower cooling requirements and smaller size. The active load that needs to be cooled is about 50 W. It will consist of a number of RF components (amps, sources, etc) mounted to a common cold plate. Several passive components will also be mounted to the plate. The whole temperature-controlled assembly will be insulated by an inch or so of foam or something similar. The ambient temperature range is roughly 0 to 100 °F at the extremes.

THEME PARK EXHIBIT

Theme Park Exhibit:

theme park exhibit

A company specializing in 3-D designs for museums, theme parks, and other attractions needed to build an “icy throne” for a museum exhibit and keep it dry at the same time.

Using four TECA AHP-1200CP Peltier cold plates (thermoelectric cold plates), one was placed in the seat, back, and in each arm rest of the throne. Raw aluminum was then screwed onto the plates, and the throne surfaces reached close to -20 °C! Visitors to the museum can sit on the throne to feel the chill. The “ice” in the picture is not real. It is a “hard coat” of scenic ice. The throne manufacturers did not want museum visitors to get wet from real ice; their goal was to create a throne.

MEDICAL LABORATORY

Medical Laboratory:

medical laboratory cooling histology samples cooling histology tissue samples

Department of histology in a major hospital needed a peltier cold plate to freeze tissue samples for examination. The Histology Division of the Department of Pathology places tissue samples from biopsies into a small block and fills it with wax. Several of these samples are then placed on one of the AHP-1200CP thermoelectric cold plates (Peltier cold plates) to “pull the heat” out of the wax so it gets really hard.

The near-frozen samples are then shaved down to the desired section (slice) using a Microtome (in picture). The thin sections are then placed in the water bath to warm up the remaining wax in order to remove it and then place the section on a slide for examination.

CANADIAN FOG BOX

Canadian Fog Box:

Below are few pictures of the “Canadian Fog Box” that our customer constructed using TECA’s AHP-300CP cold plates, power supply, and TC-3400 PID controllers.

canadian fog box canadian fog box

 

The interior of the box is covered with mirror finished aluminum to reflect the ultraviolet rays from the bulb in the bottom. The top is normally closed as well. The interior ambient temperature of the box is maintained @ 122 °F. subjecting the 2 insulated glass units (laying at a 45° angle) to intense UV radiation similar to strong sunlight. The upper portion of the glass is chilled to 70 °F. by your cold plates. This is maintained for 1 week 24 hours/day.

The insulated glass unit is then inspected for any condensation inside where the cold plates contacted the glass. Any condensation indicates impurities present inside the unit, which indicated faulty materials containing volatile gasses, which would lead to premature window unit failure.

Any other ‘fog boxes’ use water flow cold plates to maintain temperatures. Our customer during a research found TECA’s cold plates and decided to give them a try to eliminate the hassle and mess of water plates.

The thermoelectric cold plates (Peltier cold plates) have performed excellently to date, reaching and maintaining the 70 °F. quickly and without incident.

TITER PLATE COOLING

Titer Plate Cooling:

titer plate cooling AHP-300CP

The WWW brings many to TECA’s door. These particular customer requirements were filled by an AHP-300CP Peltier cold plate. He needed to control the temperature of a 96 well titer plate in a new product design. But he needed just a few things the standard unit didn’t provide and he didn’t need some that it did provide. He wanted a 24 VDC heat cool system with continuous fan operation and a custom tap pattern on the cold plate.

In short order the TECA sales team assigned a preliminary part number, passed the requirements through to engineering and together the first units were modified and shipped. This gave the customer plenty of time to work with the solid state cold plates and refine his requirements into the custom design he uses today.

The AHP-300CP series is now replaced by a newer and more efficient model the AHP-470CP series.

LOW TEMPERATURE CASCADE

Low Temperature Cascade

low temperature cascade

 

A cascade sandwich is what we called this that day, built using two AHP-300CP cold plates. The customer needed a fairly large mass cycle between two extremes. The mass and size of the load were limiting factors. The pictures and assembly look crude, and it was, but they were also effective.

It was determined that a final design based on standard components would be successful and it was.

The AHP-300CP series is now replaced by a newer and more efficient model the AHP-470CP series.

CONDENSATION TEST

Condensation Test:

condensation test
AHP-150CP
condensation test cold plate
AHP-250CP

 

A company that offers a broad range of door and window components and related building products with proven product lines and a multi-state collection of modern manufacturing facilities uses the AHP-150CP in a Canadian Fog Box, for testing double pane windows for condensation.

The AHP-150CP has been replaced by a newer and more efficient model the AHP-250CP series.

INDUSTRIAL ADHESIVE COOLING

Industrial Adhesive Cooling:

industrial adhesive cooling

These folks needed to cool a thick fluid that ends up being gaskets when robotically dispensed. A custom version of our AHP-1200CP fit the bill perfectly. Now the product is dispensed consistently because of the temperature control provided by thermoelectrics.

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