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MEDIACLAVE 10/30
Fast, reproducible and safe media sterilization
The preparation of agar medium is a routine task in today’s laboratories. The typical workflow is to dissolve the components in a flask followed by sterilization in an autoclave. However, this procedure has several disadvantages. First, the numerous working steps makes media preparation very time-consuming. Second, the sterilization temperature is usually controlled only in one single reference container, with the result that heat exposure may differ from sample to sample. Making things worse, the agar medium within the bottles cannot be stirred during the sterilization process – which otherwise would guarantee that it stays homogeneous. Lastly, it takes very long to cool the medium to dispensing temperatures and hence is exposed to a high temperature for a long time. As a result, the fertility of the agar medium might be impaired.
INTEGRA has designed a dedicated media sterilizer which eliminates these disadvantages. MEDIACLAVE allows for a much shorter process in which medium formulation and sterilization is carried out in one single step. The temperature of the agar medium is precisely monitored and controlled during the entire process. Permanent stirring guarantees homogenous temperature throughout the whole batch and an efficient plate heat exchanger facilitates rapid cooling. All these features prevent the medium from excessive heat exposure and thereby maintains its fertility.
How it works
The MEDIACLAVE product range allows the rapid and gentle preparation of 1 – 30 L culture medium. Precise controlling and monitoring of temperature, time and pressure during the sterilization process guarantee constant high quality.
Safety
MEDIACLAVE is equipped with several independent monitoring systems for pressure and temperature, guaranteeing highest safety standards for the user and the working environment. The vessel lid is equipped with an autonomous overpressure safety valve and a burst disc in case all other electronic monitoring systems fail.
1) Adding Port
2) Overpressure Safety Valve
3) Dispensing Port
4) Temperature Probe Pt1000
Fast Heating and Rapid Cooling
Powerful heating elements permit fast media processing. This minimises thermal stress and ensures high fertility of your culture medium. Pressure and temperature controlled deaeration guarantees saturated steam in the vessel.
Rapid cooling is enabled by an efficient plate heat exchanger. The separation of the cooling water system and the sterilization chamber makes it unlikely that culture media gets contaminated by cooling water.
1) Standard mode: Heating up, sterilization and cooling down to dispensing temperature.
2) Chocolate agar mode: After the first sterilization phase, blood is added and the medium heated up again.
Reliable Sterilisation
The large and strong magnetic stirrer with adjustable speed and reversing rotation direction ensures homogenous media preparation over a wide viscosity range. A Pt-1000 temperature probe and microprocessor control of process parameters allow reproducible and complete sterilization of culture media.
Dispensing
MEDIACLAVE can be quickly and conveniently connected to the dispensing tubing of the automated Petri dish filler MEDIAJET. Alternatively, the peristaltic pump DOSE IT can be used to fill containers of more unusual volumes or shapes, e.g. quadrangular Petri dishes, bottles or flasks. Large containers such as bottles can be filled by pressure dispensing. Medium is dispensed by automatically building up pressure inside the sterilization chamber.
Process documentation and validation
The MEDIACLAVE sterilization process is monitored and can be stored on a PC. A digital signature according to FDA (21 CFR Part 11) / EU (GMP Annex 11) is automatically added to the electronic process file. All logfiles can also be stored using the MEDIACLAVE USB port. If equipped with an optionally available dot matrix printer, high quality printouts insusceptible to fading can be archived.
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