by Jeffrey M. Perkel
Lab equipment comes in two basic flavors. There's the stuff researchers need to drive their specific projects—mass spectrometers, say, or microarray scanners—and the stuff everyone needs. Large lab or small, academic or commercial, every lab needs a freezer, an incubator, and a hood.
Biocompare contacted five vendors of such "general lab equipment" to learn about their latest product offerings: Here's what they said.
Binder Inc.
In business for nearly a century, Great River, New York-based Binder specializes in "both constant climate and climactic test equipment," says Ron Breuer, business development manager. The former "maintains one temperature [or condition] very accurately," Breuer says; the latter allows parameters such as temperature or humidity to rise and fall for testing purposes.
The company offers a range of environmental control equipment, including ovens (gravity convection ovens, mechanical convection ovens, and vacuum ovens); incubators (microbiological incubators, refrigerated incubators, and CO2 incubators); environmental chambers (e.g., stability chambers, which "maintain constant conditions very accurately for an extended period of time"); and plant growth chambers.
"What basically varies is the range and the different parameters you can control," says Breuer.
According to Breuer, when purchasing general lab equipment, it's the little things that matter. Take door-closing mechanisms, for instance. Many incubators feature a single latch in the center of the door. But that opens the door—literally and figuratively—for ambient air to leak into the incubator from the top and bottom of the door. Binder’s incubators have adjustable "dual-point connections" at top and bottom that can be tweaked to maintain a proper seal, says Breuer.
Other specifications to consider with controlled environmental hardware, he says, include the temperature range, humidity range, uniformity, and, especially, recovery time. "When you open the door and then close it again, how long does it take to heat back up?" he asks.
And don't forget the service contract, he adds. "The more parameters the unit controls, the better off you'll be with a service contract."
Esco Micro Pte Ltd
Singapore-based Esco Micro is "one of the world leaders in biosafety cabinets, chemical fume hoods, and ventilated enclosures," says vice president XQ Lin. In the United States, however, the company mostly markets laminar flow hoods and biosafety cabinets.
The former, says Lin, is a positively pressurized work environment intended to protect the process, not the user. "Basically, filtered air is directed out of the enclosure towards the operator," he says. By contrast, a biosafety cabinet, designed to protect both the user and the process, has "a protective airflow curtain in front of the cabinet, and air flows in, not out."
Available with a number of fairly standard options—including size and available service lines (for air, gas, and vacuum)—Esco's product line also reflects a growing interest in operator comfort and the environment, says Lin.
"You are working in these hoods every day, so ergonomics is important," Lin says. Most Esco hoods feature "a three-inch deep armrest for forearm support, because that is the main contact between your body and the cabinet." In addition, "All models now have an angled front," says Lin (in other words, the glass slopes away from the user, such that the hood is narrower at the top than the bottom). On the green front, the systems also feature "more energy-efficient motors and lighting."
Lin advises prospective buyers to consider systems that are comfortable, relatively quiet (that is, producing minimal noise and vibration), easy to clean (work surfaces with "minimal ledges, crevices, joints, and screws," for instance—all of which are potential sources of contamination), and manufactured and serviced by a reliable vendor.
"They can last 15 years if maintained properly," he says. "Make sure your vendor can support the product over that lifetime."
NuAire Inc.
Based in Plymouth, MN, NuAire specializes in what Assistant Marketing Director John Peters calls "the big three" of general lab equipment: biosafety cabinets, incubators, and freezers.
"For the most part, customers have an idea of what they need," says Peters, "but there's a wide variety of types and options. The most important thing we can do is to help guide them through the decision-making process."
Among the company's most popular offerings in the big three: the LabGard NU-425 Class II, Type A2 Bio-Safety Cabinet, the DHD AutoFlow NU-5510 CO2 incubator, and the -80oC Glacier NU-9668 24 cubic foot ultra-low temperature freezer. Depending on size, options, and features, the set can be had for under $25,000 (list price), says Peters.
According to Peters, the LabGard NU-425 is "the most reliable bio-safety cabinet on the market."The 24 cu. ft. Glacier is "the largest [-80oC] freezer we provide." Meanwhile, the controlled-environment DHD AutoFlow NU-5510 is a cell culture incubator with a twist. "It features dual-sterilization cycles," says Peters. Able to heat the unit's interior to 145oC (dry) or 95oC (humidified): "It's like the clean function of an oven."
New to the company's catalog is the CellGard ES (energy saver) NU-480 Class II, Type A2 Bio-Safety Cabinet, which is set for delivery this fall. The 480 features "a 10o sloped front sash, ultrahigh efficiency motor, and the front window pane opens up an additional 30o to clean behind the window," says Peters. The 480 also includes the "TouchLink control system," which operates and displays cabinet functions through an LCD touch screen and can display and regulate airflow in real time.
"We are trying to provide as many options and features to the end-user to maximize their safety and production," Peters says.
Sanyo
Sanyo's Biomedical and Environmental Solutions division offers a range of general lab equipment including refrigerators, freezers, incubators, and autoclaves. But its best-known (and best-selling) products, says Christine Stannard, division vice president, are its -86oC freezers with thin-wall "VIP" insulation. "This allows the customer to maximize their cold storage space while minimizing their lab footprint," she explains.
The company's second-best sellers are its CO2 incubators, available with three different contamination control measures: UV light, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and "Incusafe, a copper alloy stainless steel interior that offers the germicidal attributes of copper but with the finish of stainless steel." Stannard explains that these options correspond to the user's level of concern over contamination, ranging from low (Incusafe) to medium (Incusafe plus UV) to high (H2O2, for stem cell researchers and GLP/GMP lab workers, for instance).
The company's new MCO-19AICUVH incubator is "the first CO2 incubator on the market to offer H2O2 sterilization," Stannard says. "It offers to customers a significant advantage: Only three hours of downtime to completely decontaminate" the unit, as compared to up to 14 hours for heat-sterilized units.
"Consider products that satisfy both today's needs, but purchase with tomorrow's requirements [in mind]," Stannard advises.
Tecan Schweiz AG
Swiss hardware manufacturer Tecan offers two very different classes of generalized lab equipment, focused on automation: microplate washers and readers, and lab robotics.
"Laboratory robotics are becoming more and more commercialized," says Wendy Lauber, director of product management for biopharma at Tecan. "Plate washers, readers, and smaller robots are becoming more and more popular, and it is common to find them they are now in every lab."
Plate washers are devices that very rapidly separate unbound compounds from bound compounds in the wells of a microtiter plate; readers quantify assays by measuring the fluorescence, luminescence, or absorbance in those wells at end of an assay.
Robots, on the other hand, are more generic. "A lab robot can be anything that automatically processes your application," says Lauber—anything from a single-function plasmid mini-prep processor to an infinitely versatile, multi-armed system.
"Absolutely, this equipment is accessible to individual labs," says Lauber. Though most often associated with core facilities and industrial labs, automation, in all its forms, is also working its way into smaller academic labs. "We really are reaching out to those that are feeling the financial crunch."
According to Lauber, the "lowest common denominators" for lab automation are throughput, walkaway time, and data reliability for users working in 96- or 384-well plates. "Every time a user intervenes," she says, "it's a possible source of risk in terms of error."
Among the company's offerings are the HydroFlex™ and the Power Washer™ 96/384 plate washer (which can wash either 96 or 384 wells simultaneously), the popular entry-level Infinite® line of plate readers; and the flexible Freedom EVO robotics platform.
For labs just dipping their toes into the automation market, says Lauber, the typical path is to start with a standalone reader and/or washer. Then, as needs change, these components can be incorporated into larger and larger robotics configurations; systems like the Freedom EVO® can easily accommodate other plate-based hardware.
"The common denominator is [the users] have an application that needs to get done," she says.