Are you concerned about the safety of your laboratory environment? Are you looking for an effective way to ensure that your Biological Safety Cabinet (BSC) works fine to protect you from microbial contamination risk? Look no further! In this post, we’ll explore what is a microbiological challenge test and the KI-Discus test conducted in the biosafety cabinet factory before shipment, which help you protect your laboratory from contamination. Read on to learn more about these powerful test methods and why they are essential for keeping your BSC safe.
EN12469 and NSF49 Biosafety Cabinet Standards
Before we get to know more about these two different performance tests for biological safety cabinet, let’s review the two main international standards for BSCs.
In May 2000, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) promulgated the European standard EN12469:2000 for biological safety cabinets, which officially replaced the standards of biological safety cabinets of EU member states such as German DIN12950, British BS5726 and French NF X-44-201, and became the EU regional standard.
The US biological safety cabinet standard NSF49 has appeared in the 1970s and is recognized as the most complete standard in the field of biological safety cabinets. In 2002, ANSI/NSF49 was officially recognized by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) and became the unified standard for biological safety cabinets in the United States.
Performance Tests In Two BSC Standard
Both EN12469 and NSF49 are standards based on normative performance, that is to say, the standards do not focus on the structural design of safety cabinets, and do not specify how manufacturers make safety cabinets through detailed specification requirements. Therefore, manufacturers have great freedom to design their own safety cabinets, provided that they meet the performance test standards for safety cabinets. The main content of EN12469 and NSF49 is to specify the parameters and qualification standards of various tests (about 70% of the content). sinking airflow rate and uniformity test) and airflow smoke.
Microbiological Challenge Test for Personnel, Test Articles and Environmental Protection
In this test item, EN12469 basically adopts the test method of NSF49, and the qualification standards are basically the same. However, EN12469 has an obvious difference in the personnel protection test, which is considered another physical test scheme (KI-Discus test) based on the conventional microbial challenge test.
KI-Discus Test
This test is considered to be a test of the European standard EN12469 over NSF49 because the KI-Discus test is the only test that can verify the contamination control performance of a safety cabinet on the spot. Different from the microbial spray challenge test, KI-Discus can evaluate the safety cabinet without contaminating the biological cabinet and the laboratory, and the KI-Discus test can measure the intuitive APF index (Aperture Protection Factor), so that the safety can be identified The pollution control performance of the cabinet. The EN12469 standard stipulates that the APF index of the safety cabinet must be higher than 100,000, that is to say, the proportion of particles escaping from the safety cabinet must be less than 1/100,000. Another advantage of KI Discus is that the test results can be obtained in a relatively short time.
What We Have Done The Test Before Delivery
Each Biosafety Cabinet produced by Unicorn is individually tested, documented by traceable serial number and validated with the following ways:
Test items conducted in the factory
- Inflow/Downflow velocity testing
- PAO aerosil challenge for filter integrity
- Airflow pattern visualization
- UV radiation test
- Illumination test
- Vibration test
- Air particle count test
- Microbiological test (bacillus subtilis)
- KI-Discus containment test
- Electrical safety to IEC-61010 and IEC 61326
Additional KI-Discus containment and microbiological testing are performed on statistical sampling basis.
Unicorn Lifescience Biological Safety Cabinet
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