Autoclaves: The Different Types And Their Benefits

Autoclaves: The Different Types And Their Benefits
Authored By Medical Equipment Services Admin

What are the different types of autoclaves on the market and what are the benefits they offer? Let's take a closer look in the article below.

In 1879, Charles Chamberland, a French microbiologist, invented the autoclave.

Since then, the autoclave has become standard safety-enhancing equipment in the medical; it is an indispensable machine used for sterilising medical equipment.

However, autoclaves are also used in the scientific, chemical, and industrial fields in processes that require elevated pressure and temperature.

With the autoclave serving many different niches and industries, autoclave providers have developed a wide range of autoclaves to meet and serve the many different uses.

Below we will explore the different autoclaves on the market.

  • Media Preparators
  • Horizontal autoclave
  • Pass-through autoclaves
  • Vertical autoclaves


1. Media Preparators

As the name suggests, this autoclave is designed for and used in preparing microbiological media.

The device quickly prepares and sterilises sterile filling of liquids, including agar culture media, buffer solutions, peptone water, and other kinds of sterile water.

Some of the typical medium preparator features include a magnetic stirrer, high heating performance, high accuracy optimisation, and in some preparators, rapid cooling.

The media preparator comes in a variety of capacity, typically ranging from 10 to 20 litres.

The benefit of this autoclave is that it focuses on sterilising microbiological media.

The other autoclaves are not optimised for this function, and cannot, therefore, meet the demands of microbiological fluid sterilisation.


2. Horizontal Autoclave

Horizontal autoclaves are designed for sterilising light loads more frequently. They have a front-loading design with a rectangle pressure vessel.

The design of this autoclave, however, cannot handle heavy loads such as waste loads.

The front-loading design impedes loading and unloading of the autoclave. This is a huge problem when loading frequently.

The main benefit of front-loading horizontal autoclave design is that it reduces the strain of loading light load frequently.

As such, technicians can load many different items without having to worry straining a lot.


3. Pass-Through Autoclave

The pass-through autoclaves are designed for sterilisation of items in biological labs and production facilities.

They form a sterilisation chamber, wherein items from the lab are sterilised, leaving them contaminant-free and ready to handle outside the lab.

The pass-through lab is installed in a dividing wall, ensuring the safety of personnel handling the loads is never in doubt.


4. Vertical Autoclaves

The vertical autoclave is developed and optimised for use in lab environments.

To achieve this, the autoclaves are made to be safer, easier to use, more precise, and the process of sterilisation easier to validate and reproduce.

Vertical autoclaves are designed with compact size, thereby occupying much smaller space.

However, they have an increased height, which increases the chamber height, generally up to 50% more capacity.

Their most significant advantage is their ability to handle a wide variety of lab tools, including Erlenmeyer flasks and media bottles.


The Benefits Of Autoclaves

In industries (pharmaceutical facilities, tattoo shops, veterinary, health care, and food research, development, and manufacturing) and environments (dentistry offices and labs) where safety is essential, having an autoclave is paramount.

Autoclaves sterilise equipment, ensuring they are safe to use on patients.

The autoclave is capable of eradicating pathogens and bacteria, ensuring medical equipment is not contaminated.

More importantly, the autoclave provides operators with a cost-effective and efficient means of sterilising equipment.


In Conclusion

Whether you need to sterilise light loads, heavier loads, or tall loads, there is an autoclave for you.

The range of autoclaves we stock ensures we can meet the needs of our customers.

Most importantly, all of our variety of autoclaves are designed to hardy, robust, and long-lasting.

You can rest assured that any of our autoclaves will not only sterilise your equipment but will last-long while doing it.

If you are searching for the best autoclave supplier in Australia, then look no further than Medical Equipment Services Australia

We were originally established in 1952 in order to provide electro-medical products to healthcare professionals across the country. 

The company (Medical Equipment Services) was acquired by Medical Equipment Australia in 2009. Since then, we have also expanded into the dental industry. 

For all your medical and dental supply requirements, please call us today on 1300 342 013 or contact us through our website.



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