Laminar Air Flow Chamber & Incubator

4)  Laminar Air Flow Chamber

Laminar Air Flow Chamber is like a chamber which consists of an air blower in rear side of the chamber, through the air blower which produces air flow with uniform velocity along parallel flow lines. Laminar air flow has the specialized filter system called as High Performance Air Flow (HEPA) which can able to remove particles as small as 0.3 mm. There is a mechanism in blower, it produces air velocity along parallel flow lines, and it used to transfer the microbial culture aseptically. When air blown through the specialized filters, do not allow to enter the any microbes inside the working space. Procedures like pouring of media, plating, slant preparations, streaking etc. are performed without contamination. Inside the LAF a UV tube is fitted which are commonly used to for surface sterilization of working space before starts the procedure. It also has the Bunsen burner or spirit lamp to prevent the contamination during experiment. There are two types of laminar flow hoods are available, they are vertical or horizontal air flow in the flasking area. The vertical flow the air moves from the top of the working area to the bottom whereas, horizontal air flow the air moves from the back of the working area to the front.

5. Incubator

A device used to grow and maintain microbiological cultures or cell cultures is known as Incubator, which maintains optimal temperature, humidity, CO₂ and oxygen content inside. Incubators are indispensable for culture both bacterial as well as eukaryotic cells, experimental work in cell biology, microbiology and molecular biology. Incubator is consisting of double walled chamber it made up of copper or steel around which warm water or air is circulated by electric current. It has a thermostat to control the temperature constantly inside the incubator. The temperature of the incubator chamber can be adjusted to a desired temperature by means of external knob controlling the thermostat system. The incubator was fitted with thermometer on the top to check or monitor the temperature between the gaps of two walls. The main purpose of using the incubator in microbiological laboratory is growing the particular microorganism at desired temperature, because temperature acts an important factor in growth of the microorganism.