Maintenance, sterilisation and use of sandwich covers
Autoclaving and use of sandwich covers protocol
- Wrap the sandwich cover (on top of a polypropylene MTP, or without an MTP in case gamma-irradiated polystyrene MTPs are to be used) in aluminium foil (alternative: use a sterilization bag).
- Autoclave for 20-30 minutes at 120 ºC, preferably followed by a dry cycle.
- Remove the aluminium foil.
- If the autoclave used had no dry cycle option, dry the sandwich cover (with or without the MTP) in an oven set at ~ 100-110 ºC for 1 hour, in order to dry the filter layers.
- Place the sandwich cover (with or without the MTP) in a laminar flow cabinet.
- Fill each well of the sterile MTP (using e.g. a multipipette or a filling station) with an appropriate sterile liquid growth medium (for adviced volumes, see the pages on the hydrodynamics and oxygen transfer rates).
- Inoculate the wells of the MTP, either individually, or using a colony picker, or a replicator (see our webpage on the “use of the replicator”).
- Put the sandwich cover on top of the MTP.
- Position the sandwich cover + MTP into one of our clamp systems (attached onto an orbital shaking platform), as described on the page “use of clamp systems” .
Points of attention regarding the cleaning and maintenance of the sandwich covers
- After use, the spongy silicone layer can be cleaned using a tissue and a water- ethanol mixture
- Only disassemble sandwich covers if absolutely necessary; when replacing filters and/or the silicon seal
- The microfiber filter (blue) and the ePTFE filters (green) can be used for at least 20-50 times: replace if too dirty. Replacement filters can be obtained in packages of 20 and can be found in our price list under reference CR0001 (blue) and CR0002 (green).
- The spongy silicone layers can be re-used for hundreds of times, provided the sandwich covers are not compressed longer than about 10 days (in the latter case, the silicone layer may not fully regain its original shape). Please reach out to find the correct reference of replacement seals needed.
Contact us
The best way to contact us is to use the form below. However, you may also contact Wouter Duetz directly by e-mail. This e-mail address can be found on the "about us" page.
Optionally you may provide us with additional details about your project; culture type & duration, throughput and desired culture volumes.
We are happy to assist you. We generally reply within a single business day.
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