The safety types of ultra-clean workstations are mainly classified based on the pressure state, protection objects, and air flow operation logic. The core difference lies in the protection scope (whether it only protects the samples or also takes into account the personnel and the environment). This is the core basis for selecting laboratory safety types. Currently, the mainstream safety types are divided into three categories, as follows:
\n1. Positive pressure clean type (protection only for samples, no protection for personnel or environment)
\nThe positive pressure clean type is the basic model of ultra-clean workstations. The overall cavity is in a positive pressure state, with internal air pressure higher than the external environment. Its core function is to isolate external contaminants from entering the operation area, providing sterile and dust-free protection only for the experimental samples, but it does not have the ability to prevent internal contaminants from spilling out. It is the most commonly used basic safety type in laboratories.
\n(1) Vertical flow positive pressure ultra-clean workstation
\nThe air flow passes through the HEPA filter on the top of the equipment and is filtered before being blown downward in a uniform laminar flow over the entire operation surface, and then discharged from the sides or bottom of the surface. This type of air flow has strong stability, uniform cleanliness in the operation area, and no obvious air flow dead zones, suitable for most risk-free aseptic operation scenarios.
\nProtection limitations: The air flow will slightly overflow from the operation window. If microorganisms, dust, or harmful aerosols are generated during the operation, they will directly spread to the laboratory environment, providing no protection for the operators and the environment.
\nApplicable scenarios: Ordinary cell passage and cultivation, routine reagent preparation, aseptic material organization, routine aseptic testing of food and water quality, electronic component dust-free assembly, etc., without biological hazards or dust pollution.
\n(2) Horizontal flow positive pressure ultra-clean workstation
\nThe air flow passes through the HEPA filter on the inner side of the equipment and blows horizontally towards the operation window, covering the entire operation area. This type has an open operation view and no top air flow device obstruction, suitable for scenarios requiring precise operation and frequent observation of samples.
\nProtection limitations: The air flow directly blows towards the operator’s face and body. If there is a potential contamination risk during the operation, the contaminants will directly contact the operator, increasing the risk of protection. It is only applicable to completely risk-free dust-free operations.
\nApplicable scenarios: Precision optical component assembly, electronic chip welding, non-dust-prone routine physical experiments, etc., non-biological and non-polluting precise operations.
\n2. Negative pressure protection type (threefold protection for samples, personnel, and environment)
\nThe negative pressure protection type ultra-clean workstation (also commonly known as negative pressure laminar flow workstation) is a higher safety protection type. The internal cavity of the equipment is in a negative pressure state, with external air continuously flowing inward, completely preventing internal contaminants from escaping outward, and ensuring the cleanliness of the operation area through a dual filtration system, achieving the triple protection effect of “sample protection, operator protection, and laboratory environment protection”.
\nCore structural features: Equipped with a supply HEPA filter and a exhaust HEPA filter to form a bidirectional filtration system; the operation window is mostly semi-enclosed design, limiting the opening extent to maintain stable negative pressure; some models also have exhaust ducts, which can directly discharge the filtered exhaust gas outside, further enhancing the safety of protection.
\nApplicable scenarios: Pathogen sample processing, PCR nucleic acid testing pre-treatment, bacterial inoculation and passage, infectious sample operation, powder medicine weighing (to prevent dust diffusion), trace toxic\/volatile reagent operation, medical aesthetic infection sampling, etc., operations with slight microbial risks, dust pollution, or aerosol hazards. Most models meet the basic protection standard of biosafety level 2 (P2).
\n3. Biosafety type (special for high-risk protection, advanced negative pressure protection) The biosafety type ultra-clean workstation is an advanced version of the negative pressure protective type, designed strictly in accordance with the standards of biosafety laboratories. It has a higher level of protection and some models can meet the requirements of biosafety level 2 (P2) and level 3 (P3) experiments. The core is used for handling high-risk operations such as high-pathogenic microorganisms and high-concentration infectious samples. Compared with ordinary negative pressure laminar flow workstations, the protective design is more rigorous.
\nKey features: The negative pressure value is higher and more stable and controllable. It is equipped with an efficient exhaust air filtration system and independent exhaust ducts. Some models have gas disinfection interfaces, anti-contamination glove boxes and other additional devices. The operation window adopts a leak-proof sealing design to prevent aerosol leakage. The exhaust gas needs to pass through double HEPA filtration or even activated carbon filtration before being discharged to ensure no harmful substances remain.
\nApplicable scenarios: Disease control centers for pathogen microbial detection, high-pathogenic virus sample processing, high-risk bacterial strain cultivation in the biopharmaceutical field, in-depth analysis of clinical infectious samples in hospitals, etc. These scenarios require extremely high biosafety standards and need to be used in conjunction with professional laboratory ventilation systems.
\nSummary of core differences between various safety types<\/p>\n
| Safety type<\/td>\n | Pressure state<\/td>\n | Protected object<\/td>\n | Core advantage<\/td>\n | Applicable risk level<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Positive pressure vertical flow<\/td>\n | Positive pressure<\/td>\n | Only samples<\/td>\n | High cleanliness, stable airflow, strong versatility<\/td>\n | Low risk (low risk)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Positive pressure horizontal flow<\/td>\n | Positive pressure<\/td>\n | Only samples<\/td>\n | Wide field of view, unobstructed operation space<\/td>\n | Low risk (low risk)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Negative pressure protection type<\/td>\n | Negative pressure<\/td>\n | Samples, personnel, environment<\/td>\n | Prevent spillage of contaminants, triple protection, suitable for various types of risk operations<\/td>\n | Low microbial\/dust risk (moderate)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Biological safety type<\/td>\n | High negative pressure (controllable)<\/td>\n | Samples, personnel, environment, external environment<\/td>\n | High sealing, high filtration, leak-proof, suitable for high-risk operations<\/td>\n | Highly pathogenic microorganisms \/ highly concentrated infectious samples (high)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Selection Key Reminder: The safety type of the ultra-clean workstation must be strictly matched with the experimental risk level. It is strictly prohibited to use the positive pressure clean type for operations involving biological hazards or dust pollution, as this may cause laboratory contamination and pose risks to personnel health. For high-risk operations, corresponding protective grade negative pressure protective type or biosafety type equipment must be selected.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The safety types of ultra-clean workstations are mainly classified based on the pressure state, protection objects, and air flow operation logic. The core difference lies in the protection scope (whether it only protects the samples or also takes into account the personnel and the environment). This is the core basis for selecting laboratory safety types. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":5607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5608,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions\/5608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacintl.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |