Double Door Autoclave Provides Sterile Transit Path

The QCS 150 Pass-Through autoclave is the latest and smallest double-door autoclave to be introduced by Priorclave. Featuring a 150 litre chamber, the autoclave is purpose designed to enable laboratories maintain a secure sterile path for media and waste as it passes in and out of a sealed laboratory.

The uncompromising level of safety on this 150 litre front loading autoclave is achieved by way of a design that incorporates the highest level of door interlock settings, preventing doors on either end of the chamber to be simultaneously opened.

The Priorclave QCS 150 Pass-Through autoclave has a 500mm diameter by 740mm deep chamber and has been configured to accommodate up to 20% more load capacity than others steam sterilisers of the same specified size. This provides greater versatility where the scale of items to be sterilised may vary significantly, both small and taller items processed in a single pass.

The overall design and build of the QCS150 Litres Pass-Through autoclaves take place at Priorclave’s UK manufacturing centre where a bulkhead mounted at a correct position facilitates a strong structural fix into a dividing wall between the sterile lab and non-sterile areas. Once installed the double-door Pass-Through Priorclave is the perfect partner working as an interface between sterile and non-sterile areas.

Priorclave has introduced a choice of two models, a 150L electrically heated Pass-Through autoclave and an externally steam heated design, each offering cooling and automatic timed freesteaming.

All sterilising processes are controlled by the advanced Tactrol 2 microprocessor which provides simple yet variable settings of process time and temperature, all supported by graphic indication of cycle status. Just set the temperature and time required, select any options needed and press start, operation is fully automatic once the cycle has started. The tough, clear control panel displays continuously process status.

The QCS range also incorporates a secure key-lock switch on the front of the control panel with three levels of authorisations for controlling access to certain parameter settings; the benefits of manual key-switch make accessing each different level much simpler and faster.

Each QCS 150 Pass-Through autoclave is partly bespoke. Depending on application Priorclave will configure layout of the Tactrol controller to suit lab requirements. A typical set-up could be that only one side of the double door steriliser has access to the full control system, the other side of the autoclave equipped with just a screen to show process status so that staff are aware when a job is complete and it is safe to remove the media or waste.

Where there is concern about bio-hazardous material in the autoclave a microbiological filter can be fitted. Unfiltered condensate is returned to the autoclave for sterilisation.

Built to International Standards, the QCS H150 autoclave incorporates epoxy coated panels and frame members treated with an anti-bacterial agent that is highly effective against all bacteria and fungi including MRSA, E.coli, Listeria, Legionella, Campylobacter, Salmonella, and Pseudomonas, preventing cross contamination within the laboratory.