Precise Temperature Control

LOW TEMPERATURE CASCADE

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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

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The AHP-150CP has been replaced by a newer and more efficient model the AHP-250CP series.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

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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.

AVIONICS

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Avionics cooling application:

avionics cold plate
avinoics TE cold plate

 

A branch of the US military had an overheating problem with a high-tech radio inside the wing of a fighter aircraft. TECA developed a custom, high-performance cold plate that withstand the shock, vibration, and G forces created by one of the most technically advanced aircraft.

In order to assure maximum strength with minimum weight, TECA’s Advanced Machining Center machines the finned heat sinks for each cooler from a single blocks of material

NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH

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Neuroscience Research:

neuroscience research

 

At a prominent U.S. university, neuroscience research team choose TECA’s economical AHP-270CP Cold Plate.

The customer reports: “We cool a fly to 8 deg Celsius, and also use vacuum to attach it to the device during a brain dissection procedure. Essentially, the cooling is anesthetizing the fly, making it possible to attach the fly to the dissecting chamber in a very precise manner, using a manipulator (also in the picture).” The AHP-270CP is a great solution because it is small, inexpensive and yet offers reliable and effective cooling on the bench top.

FLOW CHEMISTRY / OEM PRODUCT

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Flow chemistry/OEM products application:

flow chemistry, cascaded thermoelectric cold plate

A European company specializing in equipment for the continuous flow chemistry market required extreme temperatures for a new product. Integrating a customized version of TECA’s Liquid Cooled Cascaded Cold Plate made the customer’s product possible: they are able to reach temperatures from minus 70 °C to plus 80 °C.

The customer reports that their new continuous flow reactor allows for the use of flow chemistry in many applications, achieving quicker results safely and with better control.

TISSUE DISSECTION

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Tissue Dissection Application:

AHP-1200CAS used in tissue dissection

We used TECA’s AHP-1200CAS three stage cascaded thermoelectric cold plate system to facilitate dissection of frozen human postmortem brain slices for extraction of protein for Proteomics research. Because we were trying to select specific regions without damaging the rest of each small specimen, it was important for us to maintain the integrity of the specimen during dissection.

Working in a lab at normal room temperature, we found that a constant temperature of -18 °C was ideal for this work (-20 °C was too cold, and warmer than -18  °C made the tissue start to melt). It would have been impossible to maintain such a precise temperature outside of a Cryostat without the cold table. It was immensely easier to perform the dissection on the cold table, and of course also much easier to wipe down the cold table than to clean a Cryostat.

LIQUID CHILLER COLD PLATE CASCADE

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Liquid Chiller Cold Plate Cascade:

Here are pictures of the TLC-900 thermoelectric liquid chiller with LHP-150CP Peltier liquid cooled cold plate set up run in the lab. The “load” is a plate with 10 power resistors mounted to the top and a series of thermocouples measuring the surface of the LHP-150CP’s thermoelectric cold plate.

liquid chiller cold plate cascade liquid chiller

 

During the test the power to the resistors is increased in steps with enough time in between for the temperatures to stabilize. Plotting the data resulted in performance curves. The test was made with the load insulated and with the load simply covered.

Later on we used a TLC-900CAS, a version of the TLC-900 made specifically for running and controlling secondary cold plates like the LHP-150CP and ran some step, ramp and soak profiles.

STIRRING COLD PLATE

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Stirring Cold Plate:

A Peltier stirring cold plate was needed to cool liquid inside a standard 1000 ml plastic tank and maintain the class 100 clean room rating. They desired a custom designed thermoelectric stirring cold plate with integral variable stir speed control, temperature control, alarm and remote sense capability.

stirring cold plate stirring cold plate

TECA is glad to participate in custom and OEM product development. Over the years we have come up with some innovative and novel solutions for our customers. This product was developed from scratch for a start-up company in the field of pharmaceutical development. This TECA cold plate apparatus was designed and built for use in a clean room facility. The controls are ergonomic. The user can easily adjust controls for stir speed, timing and temperature even while wearing clean room garb and sterile gloves.

COOLING GAS FLOW

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Cooling Gas FLow:

A potential customer expressed interest in a cooling/heating system for an aerosol flow tube envisioning a 1 inch OD, 0.875 inch ID stainless steel flow tube mounted inside a 2-2.5 inch ID pipe (likely also stainless steel and insulated on the outside) capable of controlling the tube at temperatures ranging from roughly 5 °C to 40 °C at an ambient temperature of 25-30 °C.  We are measuring the change in particulates in the air due to the temp change.

cooling gas flow cooling gas flow

Standard liquid chillers were first offered along with technical design assistance. The requirements led to direct contact cooling as being a good solution. Standard cold plate products and controllers were offered which led to this request for a custom package. “We would like to have the flow tube sandwiched between the cold plates with the temperature controller and power supplies attached in a similar manner so that we only need attach the temperature controller (the TC-3400 appears as if it will work) to a computer so that we can change the set points remotely.

Is any of this even possible or am I dreaming in Technicolor?” We advised him that the best dreams were in color. Preliminary design work was done and a quote prepared. Shortly thereafter an order was received; design documents were completed and sent to production. Less than 3 months after the initial contact the product was shipped. Several months later a follow up was made with this response.

“Things are doing really well. It does exactly what we wanted it to do, and is much more efficient and better than we hoped for. We’re very happy!

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