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In order to reduce air turbulence and prevent aerosol splashing or unnecessary diffusion, proper techniques should be used when working in a Class II biological safety cabinet (BSC).

BSC uses HEPA to filter air to protect products, people and the environment. In order to maintain a safe working environment, it is important to understand the airflow into and out of the cabinet.

When the glass observation window is opened to the certification height, the best air inflow speed can be obtained (personal protection).

If the air grille at the front of the cabinet is covered, it will affect the integrity of the airflow, and may allow laboratory air to penetrate the work area, and even cause the work area air to enter the laboratory space.

Arms tend to block the grill, but this can be prevented by a properly designed embedded air grill and/or NuAire elbow rest.

When the arm moves in and out of the BSC quickly, this will disturb the air barrier and affect the containment. This risk can be reduced by slowly moving the arm in and out, perpendicular to the access opening of the cabinet. The air barrier may also be damaged by other activities in the laboratory (for example, moving quickly, closing or opening doors, etc.).

Many standard procedures performed in BSC may generate splashes or aerosols. Methods to reduce splash and aerosol production will reduce the possibility of people coming into contact with infectious materials.

Class II cabinets are specially designed so that the laminar airflow will capture horizontally atomized spores within 14 inches (35 cm). Generally, by keeping cleaning materials at least 12 inches (31 cm) away from activities that may generate aerosols, you can minimize potential cross-contamination.

The ideal working area is the middle third of the working surface.

Equipment and materials should be carefully placed in the cabinet to avoid any interruption of air flow, which may cause cross-contamination, turbulence, and/or damage to the air barrier.

It is important that the operating distance is at least four inches from the front grille.

Active work must flow from the clean area across the work surface to the contaminated area. The placement of materials and supplies should limit the movement of “dirty” items on top of “clean” items.

To prevent unbalanced air flow in the work area, proper material balance should be maintained from left to right. Large and heavy items such as suction bottles, discarded pipette trays, and biohazard bags should be placed on one side of the cabinet.

It is important that all materials should be placed as far as possible in the cabinet, away from the front grille of the cabinet and towards the rear edge of the work surface. Similarly, aerosol generating equipment (such as benchtop centrifuges, vortex mixers) should be located at the rear of the cabinet to benefit from air diversion.

Do not place the opened test tube or bottle upright. Similarly, tubes or bottle caps should not be placed on towels, and items should be covered or re-capped as soon as possible.

When using tissue culture plates and petri dishes, the lid should be kept above an open sterile surface to reduce the direct effect of downward air flow.

The suction bottle or suction bottle should be connected to an online HEPA (or equivalent) filter and an overflow collection bottle containing a suitable disinfectant. This combination can not only provide protection for the vacuum pump or vacuum system in the facility, but also provide protection for equipment maintenance personnel.

For more than 40 years, NuAire has been committed to bringing you the highest quality and most reliable laboratory products on the market.

We are recognized as one of the world’s leading reliable equipment suppliers, which can be used in the most demanding environments, including biological safety cabinets, CO2 incubators, laminar flow workstations, ultra-low temperature freezers, centrifuges, animal transfer stations, pharmacy composite isolators, Polypropylene smoke hood, polypropylene shell, and various supplementary products and systems.

You can rely on our products with excellent but practical designs. We pay great attention to every step of the production process, from manufacturing to assembly to thorough testing. As a NuAire customer, you can also rely on our excellent value and reliable service-this is the cornerstone of our reputation as a leading international laboratory product supplier.

At NuAire, we keep your success in mind and create our high-quality products. This means that if you buy a piece of laboratory equipment from us, we want you to be completely satisfied when using it.

NuAire will work with you to ensure that your experience using our products meets your standards. If you encounter any problems or difficulties in the process, we will help you solve them until you are 100% satisfied. Our philosophy is, We will succeed only when you succeed-we are committed to working hard to ensure you achieve your goals.

At NuAire, you can trust us to be a "Made in America" ​​company. Our airflow products, carbon dioxide incubators and polypropylene products are manufactured in three locations in Minnesota.

NuAire has more than 300,000 square feet of manufacturing space, including state-of-the-art robotic sheet metal facilities, which can provide employment opportunities for 300 Minnesota households and 60 North American sales representatives. Our manufacturing workforce is 100% American.

We also purchase our materials from more than 500 US suppliers, each of which operates primarily in the United States. More than 60% of the raw materials, parts and supplies of our products come from the United States. On average, 20-30% of the stainless steel plates we use are made of recycled metals.

Although NuAire is an American company, we also have multiple international business partnerships, which enable us to better serve you and the global laboratory community. NuAire recently started producing a series of biosafety cabinets in China to supply products to the Asian market through Techcomp, Ltd., a listed Chinese company.

In 2014, NuAire established an international partnership with Hitachi Koki to provide high-performance centrifuges to the North American market. NuAire can now provide customers with Hitachi high-speed, ultra-speed and micro ultra-speed centrifuge sales and services.

Through other partnerships with several European and Asian companies, we have sold more than 100,000 biosafety cabinets to customers in 150 countries and have equipment on all 7 continents.

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Last update: May 18, 2020 at 8:01 am

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