Importance and Types of Cooling Equipments

Cooling equipments form a basic part of our industries, research organizations and even regular households. They are of utmost importance in hospitals and food industries and form the backbone of research centres and blood banks, where preservation is the key to success. With the changing face of the world, there have been some major technological breakthroughs in the process of freezing and preservation and today we can find customized cooling equipments catering to the needs of almost every industry.

The blood bank refrigerators are one such cooling equipment used to store blood, plasma and other cellular components for routine use in hospitals and research centres. The standard blood bank refrigerators offer an optimum cooling range of 2°C to 4 °C which effectively preserves the whole blood for 35 days and the separated red blood cells in suspension for around 42 days. However, for longer storage, you need to store them at lower temperatures in a deep freezer along with a cry preservative to protect the structure and composition of the cells.

The Blood Bank Refrigerators use microprocessors for effective temperature regulation and LCD display to allow constant monitoring of the temperature. Most of the models come with preset programmes and programmable features that allow the users to make modifications to the pre-existing programs and even write new ones. They are available in different capacities to accommodate small batches as well as very large batches of storage samples. These refrigerators use door illumination and an audio-visual alarm to indicate temperature fluctuations.

Mortuary chambers are the cooling cabinets used in mortuaries to store cadavers and protect them from decay and decomposition. The mortuary chambers allow storage of corpses either at a positive temperature range of 2 °C to 4°C or at a negative temperature range of -10°C to -50°C. The positive temperature range is used only for short term storage as decomposition can only be delayed and not stopped at such temperatures. When the corpses are required for identification or for forensic studies, they are usually stored at sub-zero temperatures to prevent decomposition of the body. The mortuary chambers are available in different sizes and capacities and can also be designed according to customized specifications. Most of the models are available with a loading trolley that helps in the cleaning of the chambers and in maintaining a hygienic environment.The blood bank refrigerators and mortuary chambers generally use PUF insulation for increased thermal efficiency and CFC free cooling to prevent unnecessary temperature fluctuations. The high quality rubber gaskets on the doors effectively seal off the inner storage chamber from the outside to prevent contamination and over-heating.

These cooling equipments use highly resistant and corrosion-free stainless steel for internal surfaces and powder coated or painted steel or aluminium for outer surfaces. All the surfaces and outer panels have an antibacterial coating that effectively reduces any chances of contamination both on the inside as well as on the outside. The programmable microprocessor based controls allow the user to modify the set temperature as per the requirement. Most of these blood bank refrigerators and mortuary chambers use fluorescent light for illumination and a door operated illumination system.