Laboratory Incubators for Medical and Pharmaceutical Use

Laboratory Equipment Manufacturing

Bionics Consortium Pvt. Ltd.

Culture chambers, CO2 incubators, tissue culture chambers, biological oxygen demand incubators, and hybridization ovens are some of the different types of laboratory incubators. These are equipment necessary for growing cells, bacteria, or other small organisms. Some examples include the carbon dioxide (CO2) incubator, shaking incubator, and hypoxic incubator. Temperature and humidity settings are well controlled in CO2 incubation. These incubators combine agitation and heating at the same time. A hypoxic incubator is a low-oxygen environment used to study certain types of bacteria’s growth or develop cancer cells.

Manufacturer and Supplier of Laboratory Incubators in India

Bionics Consortium is one of the emerging leaders in manufacturing and supplying laboratory equipment such as laboratory incubators in India. We deal with all types of these devices, ranging from CO2 incubators to BOD refrigerated shakers, that meet various requirements from different industries. Our products meet international standards; moreover, they have a digital temperature control system with an LED control panel indicating heater/cooler combinations, among others. Besides this, it provides a hybridization oven, organism shaking, B.O.D./counter, heated dry bath, CO2, among others. Bionics Consortium sources also sell auto-cleaning LED touch panels, water filling, etc. The company has air jackets, water jackets, fans, oxygen circulation, sensors, etc. that have been employed to ensure constant as well as accurate control over temperature and humidity level, respectively.

Meaning of laboratory incubator

A laboratory device that creates a controlled environment to grow microorganisms and maintain them is an example of an incubator for bacterial cultures or cell cultures for use inside the laboratory. In general, such containers are made out of stainless steel or glass and have a heating facility, thermostat, or fan control along with provisions for controlling the quantity vector on CO2 percentage and humidity. There exist two groups: gauge-based and gasless incubation equipment used in commercial-scale production. The second group contains shaker incubators (also known as biological oxygen demand or BOD incubators), BOD incubators, bioreactors, and others.

Salient Features:

Safety thermostat to avoid overheating.
Audio-visual alarm for temperature change warning.
High-voltage safety cut-off for unit protection.
Plexiglass inner door allows seeing inside of cabinet.

Elements of an Incubator

An incubator has the following components:

Cabinet: This is a cuboidal fridge shaped thing with 20 litres to 800 litres capacity and is made up of stainless steel sheet from the outside and aluminum from the inside. Different materials such as glass wool are used to insulate between the two walls to minimize heat loss which leads to reduced power consumption. The inner side has extended flanges that support shelves within this chamber
Door: Every incubator is provided with one door that closes its insulated body; it is insulated and therefore cannot allow any heat exchanges except through evaporation/incubation. On its outer part there is a handle for operating it whereas from inside it appears clear as there is a glass on the door surface allowing clear view of whatever is within it.
Control System: There are switches along with lights on the exterior wall of an incubator so that parameters regulating temperature/ humidity can be set accordingly while a thermostat embedded in it performs regulation purposes.
Temperature Regulator: Inside the control panel, there exists a temperature knob by use of which you can set the required temperature for your incubator, wherein it will keep on maintaining such a temperature until you adjust again.
Shelves with aeration: Hot air is fully circulated within the interior space of incubators by vents on shelves that are fixed inside the inner wall of the incubator. By doing this, some incubators provide space to remove the shelves for cleaning and position culture media plates properly.
Door seal made of asbestos: This means that no external gases can enter into it because there is a very tight fit between the door of the cabinet and its interior due to an asbestos door gasket, hence making its interior too hot, thereby continuing to heat it up.
L-shaped thermometer: The mercury bulb of a thermometer extends slightly into the chamber of an incubator, while one end contains an entry-level facet outside when it is mounted on the outer side of an incubator’s wall.
HEPA filters: More advanced incubators come with HEPA filters, which help reduce air currents that may be contaminated, and also have air pumps equipped with filters in their shut-off circuits to result in less polluted air flow within their interiors.

Regulation Humidity and Gas for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Incubator

The CO2 incubators possess water containers for vaporization humidity and a gas chamber that will allow optimum concentration of CO2 in such a chamber.

Principles behind Incubators

Incubators are devices used to create ideal conditions for microbial growth and development. These include temperature, humidity, oxygen levels, and carbon dioxide (CO2) content. The thermostat maintains a temperature constant, which can be read externally using an external thermometer. In controlling temperature in medium, the cooling mechanism from the thermostat keeps medium at room temperature during non-heating periods because there is no thermal energy added through heating by the thermostat during the heating period when the heater warms it up, thus creating a conducive growth environment for bacteria. Other parameters, such as airflow, are maintained by systems that mimic those found in nature. For instance, alterations might be necessary to sustain CO2 level equilibrium in order to adjust pH and moisture level; hence, instead of a stationary one, it can be converted into a shaking incubator to allow continuous movement of the culture medium, thus increasing aeration and solubility studies.

How to utilize an incubator

After that, culture plates containing organisms having different cultures are put in an incubator at the required temperature for some time. In many clinical laboratories, bacteria are grown at temperatures usually between 35oC and 37^oC.

Operating instructions for incubators encompass:

Make sure you take out all leftovers from previous cycles before using the incubator. Several organisms requiring similar conditions may be placed together inside one incubator. Close the door and start the incubator afresh. Take its temperature using a thermometer; if it is reached, heat it up to the desired organism growth temperature. Specify the desired CO2 or humidity level as needed. To prevent condensation of medium and do away with isolated colonies, petri-dish cultures should be kept inverted on perforated shelves. They remain sealed with adhesive tapes on them or else wrapped in polythene bags or food containers if the incubation runs for several days. Leave them inside-locked, then remove after some time as directed by plates.

Uses of Incubator

Incubators find use in cell culture, pharmacological research, hematology research, and biochemical analysis, among others.

For instance, there are several uses of incubators.

Media incubators are used for microorganism or cell culture and cultural growth in media.
Incubators can also be used to keep the organisms that will be applied later alive.
Some incubators are designed to accelerate the growth of organisms that normally have a long growth period in their natural environment.
SHF incubators, on the other hand, reproduce microbial colonies only before BOD values are typically calculated.
They are also extensively applied in insect rearing and egg hatching for zoological study purposes.
Plus, they offer good storage conditions for samples awaiting processing by laboratories.

Precautions

When using an incubator, these safety tips should be put into consideration:

Microorganisms are easily affected by temperature changes; hence, opening cabinet doors causes minimal temperature fluctuations within them.
The culture slants should be prepared in advance so as to get all required parameters correct before they enter the cabinet.
Furthermore, placing the plates upside down is best since this prevents water from collecting inside the dishes, thus preventing water formation on agar medium containing media on its lower side (Condron 2008).
The inside of the incubator needs to be wiped off when it is being operated so as to prevent anything sticking onto shelves or corners of the apparatuses (Hickey 1984).
During longer periods of working with an incubator, bottles should stand on water to avoid media desiccation (Rhee 1990).

What does a laboratory incubator do?

There is a common use, which is maintaining optimum conditions for cells or cultures within a lab setting. Apart from that, an incubator has been used in storing cell lines and bacterial strains. Incubators maintain constant temperatures, humidity levels, and CO2 concentrations. Like other factors, carbon dioxide levels are controlled within an incubator as well.

General growth of mammalian cells and Escherichia coli bacteria are some of the most common uses for incubators. In order to grow and divide, these cells need slightly humid conditions that are warm and have high concentrations of CO₂. Mammalian cells, requires a temperature of 37^oC with 5–10% CO₂, and as Escherichia coli contains a temperature range of 25^oC–37^oC with a moisture of 10% CO2.
On the contrary, microbiological incubators work at temperatures ranging from 20–80^oC due to different microbes that prefer different conditions.
A BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) incubator is utilized for determining the amount of dissolved oxygen consumed by living organisms in a sample when organic matter decomposes. Operating temperature range for a BOD incubator is 20–45^o
In conclusion, laboratory incubators are vital in the process of incubation and support of various biological cultures, including cell cultures, bacterial strains, and other microorganisms. They provide these organisms with optimal growth conditions such as temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide required for their survival. There are different types of incubators; hence, it is important to choose one that will be suitable for future use.