How Blast Freezing can Improve your Pharmaceutical Laboratory
Blast freezing is highly beneficial for your business when it comes to the storage and preservation of pharmaceuticals. 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 Pharmaceutical Laboratory?
There are a range of benefits of the blast freezing process for businesses in the pharmaceutical industry that result from the rapid freezing of pharmaceutical products and samples.
1. Effective Sample Preservation
Blast freezing a pharmaceutical sample such as a virus or protein 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
Whilst standard freezers are usually kept at 0°C, blast freezers operate at an air temperature of -30°C to -40°C. This greatly reduces the time taken to freeze samples from 6-12 hours to approximately 3 hours, saving valuable time in the laboratory and space in the freezer.
4. Transportation
Icepacks, gel packs and eutectic materials are essential for the transportation of pharmaceutical sample and products. Blast freezers allow efficient freezing of these materials by reducing the chill time and save time during shipping preparations.
5. Increased Product Lifespans
Conventional pharmaceutical 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.
Other Industries that can benefit from Blast Freezing
The pharmaceutical industry is not the only industry that can benefit from the use of blast freezers compared to conventional pharmaceutical freezers. In many food related industries such as agriculture, meat, dairy and catering using a blast freezer can ensure the safety, freshness and longevity of foods. Not only will this preserve the quality of foods, but it can also help to reduced food waste.
How Froilabo can assist with your Blast Freezer Requirements
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 and is suitable for the fast freezing of a variety of food and medical products used within a laboratory. It has the capacity to freeze 100 bags of 280mL and the different versions available (water condenser, remote air condenser, remote cooling unit) allow adaptation to installation premises as well as usage constraints.
Froilabo’s blast freezer guarantees a fast temperature drop with a change in temperature of -11°C in 60 minutes and -30°C in less than 90 minutes.
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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