How Blast Freezing Can Prepare Your Samples For Cold Storage
Blast freezing is highly beneficial for your business when it comes to the preparation of samples for storage. It is a cost-effective method of ensuring the safety, quality and efficacy of products and samples.
In this article we will introduce the concept of blast freezing and lay out the key reasons explaining why investing in a blast freezer will drastically improve your research and business productivity and reduce laboratory running costs.
What Is Blast Freezing and How Does It Work?
Blast freezing is a method of freezing designed to rapidly decrease the temperature of its contents.
The process of blast freezing involves pushing cold air through the stored products at a high velocity and low temperature. During freezing, the water inside the pharmaceutical samples crystalizes, forming ice. When the freezing process takes longer, larger crystals are formed, which can burst during thawing and damage samples. Rapid cooling during blast freezing reduces the size of the crystals that are formed, meaning that less moisture is released and the integrity of samples, such as protein structures, is intact.
How Can Blast Freezing Improve Your Preparation Process?
The blast freezing process offers a number of benefits.
1. Effective Sample Preservation
Blast freezing samples, such as blood and plasma, results in smaller ice crystal formation during the freezing process compared to conventional freezing. The smaller ice crystals result in less moisture being released during thawing. This reduces sample degradation during the freeze-thaw cycle, minimising sample loss and giving researchers better quality samples to work with, keeping products safe for use.
2. Uniform Cooling
Conventional freezers often lack uniform cooling, making them inefficient for blast freezing with potential for product loss or damage to sample integrity. Sometimes freezer “hot spots” can be found and cordoned off. Using a blast freezer ensures more uniform cooling throughout, resulting in better sample preservation. It also allows more efficient storage of samples, maximizing the space that can be used and allowing the user to get the most out of their freezer.
3. Time Saving with Blast Freezers
Conventional freezing can take approximately 6-12 hours to freeze samples. The Froilabo blast freezer takes less than 2.5 hours to reach -70°C at the core of the sample, saving valuable time in the laboratory and space in the freezer.1
4. Increased Product Lifespans
Conventional freezers are intended for long term cold storage. Using them instead of a blast freezer can impact on their lifespan as they do not have the speed or capacity for rapid freezing. Blast freezers are designed for rapid chilling so they will lower the temperature of samples evenly, quickly, and economically.
How Froilabo Can Assist
At Froilabo, we produce a blast freezer (CPR100) that performs a fast, homogenous and reproducible temperature drop suitable for a wide range of applications.
The CPR100 is available in a single volume of 100L.
The freezer has an intuitive interface with a coloured touch screen installed on the door. This screen allows the user to manage the CRP programming as well as the visualisation of the temperatures, the time taken, and the current freezing cycle.
The operating temperatures are tracked and displayed continuously. At the end of the freezing cycle, a colour code efficiently displays how the cycle went. Products can be loaded quickly and safely with a trolley on wheels. Once the freezing cycle is complete, the cart can be taken out and emptied without coming into direct contact with cold parts and therefore avoiding the risk of burning due to the cold.
Discover the Froilabo CRP100 Blast Freezer online today.
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Related Articles:
- Discover our Blast Freezer in more detail: What is a Blast Freezers
- Looking to optimise your freezer storage? Find out more about our Freezer Racking Solutions.
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