Major Equipments Involved in Microbiology

May 7th, 2014 by Acmas No comments »

Microbiology is the branch of biology that deals with the study of biochemical, physiological and genetic aspects of microorganism and how these creatures/microorganisms interact with each other. Microbiology is a vast area it includes bacteriology, environmental microbiology, food microbiology, microbial ecology and many more. This branch of biology involves;

Working in or creating aseptic conditions
Observations, identification and classification of microorganism
Detection of harmful microorganisms by performing tests on water, food and the environment
Studying human diseases caused by microorganism
Isolation and culturing of specific microorganisms under controlled conditions.
Isolating, analyzing and genetically manipulating nucleic acids, proteins and other substances produced by microorganisms
Isolating and genetically modifying microorganisms involved in breaking down pollutants
Developing genetically modified microbes for use in the production of genetically engineered biological products (proteins) or for gene transfer.

Microbiology helps scientists and physicians in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infection in animals and humans by investigating

How organisms cause disease and their role in disease processes
Factors contributing to the occurrence of diseases in a population
How epidemics can be controlled

A variety of specialized equipments are used in the microbiology, major equipments involved are:

Incubator shaker; the most common application of an Incubator Shaker in the Microbiology is for the growth of bacterial culture and other applications requiring both high temperatures and oscillation frequency.

An incubator Shaker uses an orbital agitation at variable speeds to affect the growth of cell cultures in addition to stable temperature conditions. Agitation speed and orbit affect both the aeration and the mixing of the cultures. Rate of cell growth increases with the increase in Oxygen transfer rate that depends on the aeration, in the other words the greater the aeration, greater is the Oxygen transfer rate and hence the rate of cell growth.

Autoclaves; An autoclave is a device that uses steam to sterilize equipment and other objects by subjecting them to high pressure saturated steam at 121 °C and 15 pounds of pressure per square inch depending for around 15–20 minutes on the size of the load and the contents.. This means that all bacteria, viruses, fungi, and spores are destroyed. Autoclaves work by allowing steam to enter and maintaining extremely high pressure for at least 15 minutes. Because damp heat is used, heat-labile products (such as some plastics) cannot be sterilized or they will melt.

Autoclave is commonly used for Moist Heat Sterilization. Moist heat is thought to kill microorganisms by causing denaturation or the coagulation of essential proteins. Autoclaving 121ºC/15 psi for 15 minutes exceeds the thermal death time for most organisms except some extraordinary spore formers .The time required to kill a known population of microorganisms in a specific suspension at a particular temperature is referred to as thermal death time (TDT). Temperature is inversely proportional to TDT. Processes conducted under high temperatures for short periods of time are preferred over lower temperatures for longer times.
Lamina Air flow; Laminar Air Flow is an enclosed bench designed to prevent contaminations like biological particles (SPM) or any particle sensitive device. This closed cabinet is usually made up of stainless steel without any gap or joints where spores might collect.

Air is drawn through a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters and blown in a very smooth flow or streamline flow (when a fluid flows in a parallel layer with no disruption between the layers). There are two types of laminar air flow

Vertical
Horizontal

(Both types of hoods have continuous displacement of air that passes through a HEPA (high efficiency particle) filter that removes particulates from the air. In a vertical hood, the filtered air blows down from the top of the cabinet; in a horizontal hood, the filtered air blows out at the operator in a horizontal fashion.)

Centrifuge; A centrifuge uses centrifugal force to isolate suspended particles from their surrounding medium on either a batch or a continuous-flow basis. A centrifuge utilizes density difference between the particles/macromolecules and the medium in which these are dispersed and Dispersed systems are subjected to artificially induced gravitational fields.

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Environmental Chambers-Introduction

May 6th, 2014 by Acmas No comments »

Environmental chambers are the scientific equipments that perform scientific testing of a product/biological items, industrial products, materials, electronic devices and components under specified environmental conditions or the variety of stresses. Environmental chambers also accelerate the effect of exposure to the environment on the products, sometimes at conditions not actually expected. These conditions include:

Temperature variation
Relative Humidity
Salt spray
Rain
Weathering
Vacuum
Electromagnetic radiation
Electro-dynamic vibrations

Environment chambers can range from walk-in type used for the storage of temperature sensitive pharmaceuticals, to large drive-in chambers used in testing automobiles. These systems can be supplied with temperature and humidity PID controls or with fully computerized data acquisition and control systems. Environmental chambers use forced convection heating for optimum temperature distribution and sophisticated controllers ensure minimum overshoot and excellent set-point stability.

Applications of these Chambers include:

Ambient storage chambers for the aerospace industry
Energy efficiency testing chambers
Curing rooms (Concrete, moisture)
Storage Rooms (photograph, film and polymer)
Machine testing enclosures
Electronic burn-in testing
Roll-in bottle incubation chambers
Industrial dry rooms and dry chambers
Entomology rearing rooms and chambers

Advantages of Environmental Chambers

Environmental testing by environmental chambers allows an organization to design and products that are more reliable and safer for their intended end use.
Environmental chambers prevent need to re- work materials due to humidity fluctuations in chamber.
These chambers are environmentally safe, requiring no refrigerants or freons.
Silent operation.
Easy to install, requiring minimal maintenance.

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Environmental Chamber Types

May 5th, 2014 by Acmas No comments »

Environmental chamber– it is a safe place for testing everything (biological products to electronic products) from heat to vibration and stress or creates an environment for testing variables. Environmental chamber comes in various shapes, sizes and types. The most common type of environmental chamber is for thermal testing (heating as well as cooling qualities); thermal shock chambers. Environmental chambers customary use is for testing parts; some environmental chambers are used to grow cultures or specialized crops without outside influence.

Environmental chambers are suitable for carrying out different quality control tests under controlled conditions of temperature and humidity. Vibration analysis, moisture absorption and stress testing are also common functions of environmental chambers. One of the major advantages of environmental chamber is that the environmental testing allows organization to design and produce products that are more reliable and safer for their intended end use.

The environmental testing industry offers many types of test chambers ranging from small benchtop style chambers to chambers as large as a room. The test application and product loading requirements will primarily determine the type of chamber needed.

Benchtop Chambers; these chambers are the smallest size of environmental test chamber typically ranging from 0.5 cubic feet to 5.5 cubic feet. This is fine for many commercial and industrial tests that require low temperatures of typically 0°C, -10°C or -25°C.Benchtop chambers are ideal for testing smaller products such as computer components, automobile sensors or cellular phones, these chambers combine superior performance with compact design that is perfect for research and development or personal point-of-use testing. These chambers can be mounted in an instrument rack or will easily sit on a laboratory benchtop.

Upright or Reach-in Chambers; also known as Upright Chambers. Upright or Reach-in chambers can range from 4 to 70 cubic feet or larger and are able to stimulate almost any environment. Temperature, humidity, altitude, rain, solar and vibration are just some of the environments that can be produced by an upright or rich-in chamber. Reach-in environmental chambers provide a flexibility chambers provide a flexibility and economy of space that full sized rooms are unable to offer. By lining the walls of a room with reach-in chambers, researchers can maintain multiple environments, each with their own temperature, humidity and lighting levels, while maximizing the available space.

Walk-in Chambers; walk-in chambers are environmentally conditioned rooms ranging in size from those big enough to step into or those large enough to drive into. They can be used to test large components, assemblies and finished products, from computers and copiers to automobiles and satellites throughout a wide range of temperature and humidity environments. Walk-in can also be used as a laboratory environment for conducting test procedure in food processing, pharmaceutical and scientific applications. They offer temperature and humidity simulation capabilities for climatic testing and temperature/humidity cycling whenever there is a need to simulate wide temperature and humidity extremes. They can be made almost any length, width or height.

Thermal shock Chambers;The most common type of environmental chamber is for thermal testing (heating as well as cooling qualities); thermal shock chambers. Thermal shock chambers have the ability to shock a product by moving it from a high temperature to a low temperature. With two or three separately controlled temperature zones between which products are automatically transferred, they thermally shock and stress a product quickly, exposing its reliability in the process. These chambers are available in different sizes and configurations depending on testing requirements.