Discover the advantages of our media preparators: streamline your laboratory workflow, save time, reduce costs and improve the quality of your production.
Today, any manager of a microbiology or plant tissue culture laboratory is looking for ways to automate their production processes in order to increase efficiency and quality. In addition to striving to minimize manual tasks, as they are time-consuming and may lead to human errors and accidents, any laboratory manager also prioritizes utilizing their staff for tasks of higher value-added. It is also a priority to work with processes that optimize the traceability and quality of the results obtained.
At RAYPA, a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of autoclaves with over 40 years of experience, we have found the solution: our media preparators, suitable for all types of laboratories, due to their performance, dimensions, capabilities and technical features. A single device that integrates the preparation, sterilization, cooling, and dispensing of culture media.
Advantages of using a RAYPA media preparator
The benefits of automation are indisputable, especially in fields such as microbiology and plant tissue culture. Due to their complexity, implementing automation in these areas means much more than simply reducing costs and increasing productivity.
Below, we detail the many advantages of using RAYPA’s AE-MP Series media preparator to automate your entire preparation of media workflow:
Process optimization
Automating processes involves managing and improving control over the entire cycle by tracking performance indicators to obtain a more reliable control and analysis. This guarantees homogeneous and higher quality samples with a lower risk of medium contamination and an increase in productivity with a significant reduction in costs.
In order to better manage this procedure, the media preparator records the entire process, step-by-step. Also, thanks to its large capacity, we can scale up and increase production if necessary, producing bigger volumes in less time. Therefore, the process is faster, and the laboratory is more efficient.
Accuracy, homogeneity and speed
Conducting the preparation, sterilization, cooling, and dispensing of culture media within a single device provides the procedure with a level of precision difficult to achieve through traditional manual techniques utilizing an autoclave. Our AE-MP Series media preparators record every detail and automatically follow all the preprogrammed parameters marked for each stage.
Working manually with an autoclave may present several issues:
- Heat exposure can vary very significantly among the samples of the same batch, since the temperature is only monitored in a reference vessel or, even worse, only through chamber temperature. This means that not all samples are processed in the same way and the attained degree of sterility achieved in each container will be different. However, with a media preparator, the sterilization temperature is uniform throughout the media as it is continuously stirred. Additionally, the temperature is regulated by a flexible probe that is inserted directly into the medium. This ensures that the entire medium is processed accurately, homogenously and eliminates the presence of cold spots within the load.
- Moreover, most autoclaves do not have the capability of processing loads with F0-regulation, an indispensable factor to guarantee a good processing of culture media. With a media preparator this impediment disappears, since the flexible temperature probe takes accurate temperature readings directly from inside the culture medium. With these readings, the microprocessor automatically calculates the progression of the attained F0 until the desired level of sterilization is achieved.
- During the sterilization and cooling phases, bottles with agar cannot be removed from the autoclave, and this restriction can cause problems of homogeneity, solubility of solutes and presence of bubbles while the load is cooling. On the other hand, with a media preparator the medium is constantly stirred, avoiding all these problems.
- The time elapsed from the completion of sterilization to the attainment of dispensation temperature is quiet lengthy, as big containers containing liquids cool very slowly. In addition, when the bottles are removed from the autoclave chamber, they may be still too hot to safely handle them and often cause burns to users. With our media preparator, these potential occupational risks are eliminated because the operator does not have to handle hot containers. Moreover, thanks to its rapid cooling capability, the medium cools down in much shorter time, in fact, almost a -90% reduction in comparison to natural cooling. Furthermore, the dispensing temperature is adjustable, and the equipment offers several options for dispensing media, including through an optical sensor, a foot pedal, or delay.
- Once the process is complete, cleaning each container separately can be time-consuming and tedious. Often, a container spills sample or even gets broken, and it is difficult to clean the medium from the autoclave walls. When utilizing a media preparator, the medium remains within the internal cuvette which can be easily removed for convenient cleaning. In addition, the cleaning of the media preparator dispensing lines, unlike other manufacturers, can carried out through the use high temperature steam pulses, simplifying their cleaning.
Traceability throughout the entire process
Identifying and parameterizing the different stages of the media production process is a fundamental task of any microbiology or plant tissue culture laboratory because it is an essential requirement of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP).
Manually controlling the traceability during the preparation of the medium becomes a laborious task in which the possibility of human error is present at all times. Thanks to the connectivity of RAYPA’s media preparator, this deficiency is rectified as everything that happens in the media preparator is recorded for later consultation using the specific PC software. Also, tickets of each batch can be issued with an embedded printer.
Reduction in the risk of occupational accidents
Despite the training of laboratory technicians, established protocols, and necessary clothing and equipment, accidents still occur, particularly in environments where chemical products are handled and high temperatures are involved.
Furthermore, due to the manual nature of the media preparation process, personnel are often required to perform repetitive tasks and adopt uncomfortable postures, which can lead to chronic low back pain or other related conditions over time and potentially result in sick leave.
The ergonomic design and flexibility of RAYPA’s media preparator, combined with the minimal supervision required for its operation, greatly reduces the potential risks, accidents, and sick leave associated with repetitive tasks and uncomfortable postures commonly encountered during manual preparation of culture media. he work is performed in a more comfortable position for the operator, faster and with complete safety, avoiding the possible risks of burns or from poor posture during repetitive tasks.
Additionally, at RAYPA we prioritize, first and foremost, the prevention and safety of our products, which include standard features such as:
- Positive pressure door locking system.
- Open door sensor.
- Warning messages and alerts.
- Water level detectors.
- Safety valve.
- Safety thermostat.
RAYPA's Media Preparator
There are many advantages when you automate media preparation with our AE-MP Series media preparator. In the same unit you will be able to carry out the preparation, sterilization, cooling and dispensing of culture media with an excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility. This will allow you to increase efficiency and reliability in your microbiology or plant tissue culture laboratory.
If you are interested in our culture media preparator, we invite you to discover all its technical specifications and download the data sheet or the installation guide, as well as to contact us for further information.