70 Years of American Made Autoclaves Written by: Arthur Trapotsis Seventy years ago William A. Barnstead acquired Consolidated Machine Corporation with a focus on producing rolling door autoclaves and water stills for the U.S. Department of Defense. Barnstead, an entrepreneur and rugged individualist, worked diligently to create for his company a strong and lasting reputation as an innovator in the sterilizer and water still industry. […] Tweet Like Share
Biosafety Levels 1, 2, 3 & 4: What’s the Difference? Written by: Arthur Trapotsis Updated 11/3/22: Information about the biosafety level requirements for handling SAR-CoV-2 (COVID-19 coronavirus) can be found here. Safety is of the utmost importance in any laboratory setting, especially when working with autoclaving equipment. In order to ensure the safety of lab personnel, the environment and surrounding communities, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) […] Tweet Like Share
Laboratory Autoclave Steam Sterilization Cycles, Part 10: Immediate-Use (Flash) Sterilization Cycle Written by: Arthur Trapotsis There has been much debate around the antiquated term “flash sterilization.” A concerted effort has been made by the Association for Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), the Joint Commission (JC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to clarify the use of flash sterilization, which these organizations now refer to as “immediate use” sterilization. This sterilization cycle is not intended for routine instrument sterilization but only when specific instruments are needed for an emergency procedure. Read more → Tweet Like Share
Laboratory Autoclave Steam Sterilization Cycles, Part 9: Air Over-Pressure Cycle Written by: Arthur Trapotsis In the ninth installment of our Steam Sterilization Cycles Series, we explore Air Over–Pressure, another cycle used to sterilize a specific type of liquid load. An Air Over-Pressure Cycle is used to sterilize small liquid loads that are extremely sensitive to evaporation or boil-over in laboratory autoclaves. Typical applications for this cycle include pre-filled pipet tips, small pre-filled vials, loosely capped flasks, foil sealed glassware, or any partially vented containers where even small amounts of evaporation are not acceptable. Read more → Tweet Like Share
Bowie-Dick & Vacuum Leak Tests: Autoclave Sterilization Cycles Written by: Arthur Trapotsis The entire purpose of a laboratory or medical autoclave is to, quite simply, sterilize; however, without the proper conditions for sterility, an autoclave may fall short of its mission. Validation is an essential quality assurance measure designed to ensure that your autoclave operates exactly as intended. There are a number of different ways to validate […] Tweet Like Share
Why Our New Laboratory Sterilizer Took 4 Years to Develop Written by: Arthur Trapotsis January 5, 2014 I’ve been CEO of Consolidated Sterilizer Systems for 6 years now and one thing I’ve learned along the way is to appreciate and embrace customer feedback. Early on in my career I kept hearing conflicting information about the design of our sterilizer doors. I would hear comments like; “Why don’t you offer a vertical sliding door sterilizer?” and “We love your radial-arm, hinged door.” Believe it or not, these seemingly different sets of customers were saying the same thing—that they both had poor experiences with the existing vertical door laboratory sterilizers on the market. Despite this information, we waited. The truth was we knew that vertical door sterilizers were prone to more errors and maintenance than the traditional, “radial arm, hinged” door and we wanted nothing to do with it. Read more → Tweet Like Share
Steam Sterilization Cycles, Part 7: Product Lifecycle Testing in an Autoclave Written by: Arthur Trapotsis In our 7th installment of the Advanced Cycles Series, we explore automated product lifecycle testing in an autoclave. Repeated exposure to an autoclave chamber’s extreme temperature and pressure conditions allows Quality Control Specialists to sharply accelerate product aging and evaluate the lifecycle of a product. Typically, this process requires that an individual (e.g. technician, scientist, engineer, etc) spend countless hours in front of an autoclave. What if you could program the autoclave to run multiple sterilization cycles (over multiple hours or days) with the press of a single button? Read more → Tweet Like Share
Autoclave Steam Sterilization Cycles, Part 6: F0 Cycle Written by: Arthur Trapotsis Autoclave efficacy is highly dependent on time, temperature, and pressure, and these parameters can be manipulated and optimized to create specific sterilization cycles for each application. To help your facility get the most out of your autoclave, we introduce the sixth article in our Steam Sterilization Cycles series: The F0 Cycle (pronounced f-sub-zero or f-sub-oh). Read more → Tweet Like Share
Steam Sterilization Cycles, Part 5: Low Temperature Cycle Written by: Arthur Trapotsis Steam sterilizers play a pivotal role in your lab’s research capabilities and throughput. However, how can you safely and properly sterilize load types that are more temperature-sensitive than others? To help you avoid overheating a specific load type, thereby compromising it, we introduce the fifth article in CSS’ ongoing Steam Sterilization Cycles series: Read more → Tweet Like Share
Community Contributions: High-Tech Steam Autoclave Donated by CSS to The University of Wisconsin’s School of Veterinary Medicine Written by: Arthur Trapotsis Consolidated Sterilizer Systems is proud to announce a recent company donation to the University of Wisconsin’s School of Veterinary Medicine. Our SR-24D-ADVPRO steam autoclave was gifted this spring and successfully delivered and installed in early summer. Read more → Tweet Like Share
7.12.23 Cordyceps Sterilization: How to Kill “The Last of Us” Parasite → In HBO’s recent adaptation of “The Last of Us,” a popular action-adventure video game, life as we know it is upended by a parasitic fungus that transforms its human hosts into zombies. The culprit? Cordyceps, a real-life genus of fungus which is best known for infecting insects (most famously ants) in much the same manner […]
6.30.23 Top 13 Sterile Processing Mistakes in Hospitals → When it comes to ensuring patient safety in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), the Sterile Processing Department (SPD) is among the last lines of defense. It’s this department’s sole responsibility to make sure that reusable instruments and devices are properly decontaminated, sterilized, and ultimately safe to use in future procedures — protecting patients from […]
6.22.23 Sterilization vs. High-Level and Low-Level Disinfection [a 3-Point Comparison] → In a 1939 paper, microbiologist Earle H. Spaulding introduced a system for determining which medical devices and instruments needed disinfection and which ones required sterilization. In it, he proposed that critical instruments would need to be subjected to more stringent disinfection protocols than non-critical patient care items. Today, this framework is fittingly known as Spaulding […]
