Laboratory Equipments 2 Temp. Time co (Minutes) 120 480 140 180 150 150 160 120 170 @ 180 » Experiment no. 3 Study of construction and uses of Laminar air flow apparatus Inmicrobiological laboratories, the microbial population in the air will be generally high due to activities such as opening the culture plates, observing them under microscope, transfer and inoculation of culture, ete. Air in such rooms can not always be made microbe free by other sterilization methods. Hence itis the air in the laboratory that needs to be filtered and sterilized. ‘The laminar ar flow system is used for reducing the danger of infection while working with pathogenic microbes. The laminar air flow system works on the principle of application of fibrous filters in air filtration. In this system, air of a closed cabinet or room is made to pass through high efficiency particulate air filters pack (HEPA). The HEPA filters the air and does not allow any suspended particle above 0.3 mm dimension to go out and as such the air is free of all suspended particles (above 0.3 mm size), The laminar air flow apparatus sucks the air in the room continuously and blows out the air through a pack of filters. The air is blown out in uniform velocity and in parallel flow line. ‘The laminar air flow apparatus consists of a platform or a work table covered from all sides except the front portion. The work table or the platform is usually fixed to a stand which has wheels to facilitate the movement of the apparatus, The back of the laminar air flow apparatus consists of HEPA air filter through which the air is blown. The top of the apparatus has a number of control switches to switch on/off UV light, tubelight and to turn on the air flow. There is a mercury level indicator which indicates the room pressure.