Everything to Know About Technological Advancement in Lab Freezers

Technology undergoes rapid changes. And lab freezer technologies are not immune to the change. Demand for lab freezers has escalated to an all-time high. The market has grown at a CAGR of 4.6 percent from 2015 to 2021.

A slew of factors is responsible for the growth in the demand for lab freezers. Some of the factors are:

• Increased blood transfusions
• Growing demand for blood and plasma
• Increasing use of crypto preservation techniques for the storage of cell lines
• Growing research activities related to the treatment of diseases

All the demands have created the need for lab freezers to undergo technology upgrades. The equipment should ensure that they can meet the growing needs effectively.

Also, advancement in technology is the key reason for the faster market growth. Let us look at the latest developments in lab freezer technology:

Ultra-Low Temperature (ULT)

Many biological research specimens need storage temperatures below -80 degrees C., And that requires ultra-low temperature freezers. These freezers also act as vaccine storage refrigerators.

ULT freezing technology evolved in 2009 as an alternative to the standard compressor-based ULT cooling technology. And it is 70-75 percent more efficient than the preceding technology.

Moreover, ULT freezing provides the following advantages:

• Simpler design and less prone to failure
• The piston does not undergo mechanical wear as gas bearings support it, eliminating the physical contact that generates heat and friction, leading to mechanical wear.
• A linear motor controls the piston's strokes, continuously modulating and changing the temperature as per requirement. It is a departure from the stop-start cycles that can lead to mechanical stress.

The simplified construction of a ULT freezer also calls for less preventative maintenance.

Unique Default Passwords

You can control freezers used in industries, including the medical industry, from any browser connected to the internet.

But, there is a downside. Internet-connected freezers provide you with the convenience of accessing the unit from anywhere. But, at the same time, the facility offers an opportunity for attackers to carry out sabotage.

The freezers often become targets of attackers because the systems use default passwords for all units. In this way, the freezers become susceptible to attacks that are easy to perform.

To carry out attack operations, the attackers only need to find out the relevant website to access the freezer over the internet and type in the default username and password, which they can easily find on the documentation provided by the manufacturer.

After gaining access to the username and password, attackers can easily manipulate the freezer's temperature controls, alarm systems, and user preferences.

Despite changing the username and password after setting up the freezer is recommended, many owners do not do it. Due to the vulnerability, the California state has banned the sale of all internet-connected freezers that do not contain a strong password that is unique to that specific device.

Shared Freezers

The trend of labs using shared freezers is growing among research labs. You can get to see many research laboratories offering rental space in their ULT freezers for other labs. It can be an option for labs to save money by not investing in a ULT freezer on their own. Also, it helps in reducing energy consumption and raw material wastage.

Solid-State Cooling

Semiconductors have made their way to freezer technology too. Compressor systems cool your freezer by generating cold air and blowing it around the unit. But solid-state cooling is different. It extracts heat through semiconductors and redistributes to cool the stored items. As solid-state freezer technology does away with the compressor, it creates more space inside and can maintain a constant temperature. Besides, it causes lesser energy consumption. As such, freezers with solid-state technology are more environmentally friendly and less expensive to run throughout the unit's lifecycle. As a result, solid-state technology-based freezers are now being used in several industries, including hospitals and research laboratories.

2D Barcode Systems

The number of samples used in laboratories is increasing. Simultaneously, the risk of wasting time and money due to temperature fluctuations, destroying samples, and misplaced samples are also growing.

A new freezer technology enables you to track your samples easily through 2D barcodes. The involved method is that the samples are cooled to -20 degrees C and transferred through a pneumatic transport, and they are barcoded, which are scanned against a location in the freezer.

The barcode, however, does not store any identifying information about the sample, keeping the work on the sample confidential.

When removing the freezer samples, they need to be pre-sorted into an empty pipe and delivered to a rack at about ten samples per minute. The freezer inventory gets automatically updated with the retrieval of the samples.

Such freezers can interconnect storage modules to expand their storage capacity.

The 2D barcode technology allows the retrieval of samples from any of the freezer units through a single rack in a remote location.

It reduces the need to repeatedly open and close the freezer door to cause temperature fluctuations, damaging the samples.

Conclusion

Changes in technology have brought in many new types of freezers. We believe that this article will help you to get acquainted with the latest freezer technologies. Which, in turn, will help you to invest in the best freezer for your lab.