Cavey Laboratory Engineering Co Ltd, UK
Cavey Laboratory Engineering Co Ltd is a specialist instrument manufacturer providing equipment for the ink, coatings and medical industries.
Based in Surrey, UK, Cavey Laboratory Engineering Co Ltd makes a range of instrumentation for drying evaluation and rub and abrasion testing for the Paint and Printing Industries, and tissue testing in the Medical Industry.
For additional information, including brochures for Cavey Laboratory Engineering Co Ltd instruments, please go to our download section, contact Novasys or visit Cavey Laboratory Engineering Co Ltd website at http://www.caveygroup.co.uk/
McIlwain Tissue Chopper
This apparatus has been designed to prepare pieces of tissue for metabolic experiments and to be especially applicable to small and irregular specimens available at biopsy or from small organs. Its special features are to cause much less disturbance of cell structure than homogenisers or blenders and to be applicable to fragments that would be difficult or impossible to cut by ordinary methods. Typical applications are to liver, kidney and various parts of the central nervous system.
Slices up to 1mm thick and cubes or prisms up to 1mm cross section can be prepared with the chopper in 30 seconds. Provision is made for stepless variation of slice thickness from zero to the maximum by means of a micrometer head calibrated in microns.
The action of the machine is as follows: a circular stainless steel table, on which the specimen is placed, is traversed automatically from left to right of the machine. At the same time a chopping arm carrying a blade is raised and dropped rapidly by an adjustable force. As the table carrying the tissue passes under the blade it is chopped into the required slices. If prisms are required the table is returned to the left hand side of the machine, turned through 45°, and the process repeated. Cubes are formed by rotating the table 90° . The cutting speed can be varied from zero to over 200 strokes per minute. A safety limit switch is provided to prevent the machine overrunning and a quick release mechanism for the return of the table.
Tissue Disintegrator
This apparatus has been designed for the breaking down of both animal and bacterial tissues and for mixing operations which, in many instances, furnishes results superior to those obtained by ultrasonic equipment. Active enzyme preparations can be obtained with the Disintegrator from various kinds of yeast. The yeast Torulopsis Pulcherina can be broken down in 15 minutes and bacterium coli suspensions undergo 80% disintegration in approximately 25 minutes. Streptococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus have been effectively disrupted by grinding with ballotini beads. The apparatus has also been used for the grinding of algae, fungi, “creaming” of rat’s livers, obtaining preparations of isolated nuclei, etc. Also for the extraction of DNA, even with difficult microorganisms such as small Gram-positive cocci.
The grinding or colloidizing action is caused by the violent impulses submitted to the test material as the reeds to which the sample containers are attached, reverse their direction 100 times per second (120 for 60 hz model). Two 10 cc capacity ‘Pyrex’ glass specimen vessels are held in stainless steel containers which are partly open so that the specimen can be observed during the disintegration process. Mounting the specimen holders in the plane of vibration of the reeds, and inwardly protruding baffles in the walls of the vessels themselves, prevent the material from clinging to the sides of the latter. This arrangement also avoids the formation of vortices, which would disturb the rapid and thorough mixing or disintegration. The disintegrator can also be supplied with containers to hold ten vials instead of the two ‘Pyrex’ vessels.
The BK Drying Recorders
The BK 3 Speed Drying Recorder has been used widely in the coatings industry throughout the world for several decades. A needle carrier holding six hemispherical ended needles travels the length of the six 305 x 25 mm test strips in 6, 12 or 24 hours. Other speeds are available to special order. A time scale on the side cover is graduated to suit the three different travel times.
The BK 6 and BK 10 Recorders have independently operating tracks allowing tests to be made at different start times. Pairs of tracks operate at the same speed, and a wide range of travel times are available. Travel times of 6, 12, 24 and 48 hours are all considered as standard. A time scale on the front cover is graduated to suit the instrument’s drying time ranges. Each pair of tracks has its own individual operating switch.
