Author
Cleonard

Published
20th March 2018

Use i-FlowLab as your centralized gas source

Why buy bulk nitrogen when you can make your own?

Summary
For the last 20 years, Peak Scientific has been specializing in the development, production, sales and service of laboratory gas generators. As an international company with operations all over the world, Peak Scientific has over 18 global offices and a direct local presence in over 20. This includes substantial operations across North America, China and India. The purpose of this article is to provide a detailed case study on the future of centralized gas supply in laboratories.

Traditional centralized laboratory gas supply is still heavily dependent on dewars, liquid nitrogen tanks or high pressure cylinders. Each option is associated with many pitfalls because they require cumbersome replacement cylinders, have safety risks associated with handling, and ongoing cost of purchasing and managing stock. Why buy bulk nitrogen when you can make your own?

Why should you switch to i-FlowLab?
Peak Scientific’s turnkey i-FlowLab has been widely used and proven to be a cost effective solution for centralized laboratory nitrogen supply. With i-FlowLab, you can replace multiple small generators, cylinders or dewars which helps to reduce costs and hassle in your laboratory. Producing nitrogen on demand and with the ability to operate 24 hours a day, i-FlowLab is a reliable, total laboratory generator system that produces high-flow, high-purity nitrogen using PSA technology. A single i-FlowLab can easily supply multiple laboratory applications including, but not exclusive to: gloveboxes, sample evaporators, fume hoods or LC-MS instruments. Due to the unique design of the i-FlowLab nitrogen generator, the system can be expanded to facilitate future gas supply requirements and laboratory expansion. By increasing the number of carbon molecular sieve columns, labs can facilitate a growing laboratory with an increased flow of gas.

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One of the laboratory's that uses i-FlowLab has more than 50 LC-MS and other analytical equipment (such as GC, gloveboxes, FT-IRs) that not only need nitrogen but also hydrogen, air, zero air, zero nitrogen, and carbon dioxide-free air. Peak’s i-FlowLab provides high-purity, analytical grade nitrogen for more than 50 LC-MS in the laboratory to meet the mass spectrometry needs of all of the major LC-MS manufacturers.

i-FlowLab

Advantages to i-FlowLab as a centralized gas solution:
• Convenient– Our systems create nitrogen-on-site and on-demand, eliminating the inconvenience and safety issues of frequently handling and replacing high-pressure cylinders or dewar tanks.
• Cost-effective– On average you will see ongoing savings of 50% or better when you switch to an i-FlowLab system. By eliminating the costs associated with shipments of alternative methods of nitrogen and downtime needed to switch cylinders, i-FlowLab helps you and your lab save money.
• Consistent- Nitrogen ensures constant supply, purity, flow and pressure stability. It also avoids the problem of different test results due to different batches of cylinders, with no introduction of gaseous impurities and no need to worry about gas depletion & replacement.
• Safety- Cylinders and dewars are a potential safety hazard due to their large, awkward size and their high-pressure vessels. A gas generator will solve these problems and ensure that you are safely producing nitrogen.
• Environmentally friendly- No repeated transport of alternative nitrogen supply, energy saving and carbon-free.
• Expandable design- When laboratory expansion or more gas usage is required, the nitrogen output can be increased simply by adding more CMS columns, while maintaining the same purity. In addition, i-FlowLab can also support multiple devices in series to provide greater traffic output to meet a wider range of applications.
• Oxygen analyzer- i-FlowLab is equipped with an oxygen analyzer to monitor nitrogen purity in real time.
[Peak Protected]-Peak Scientific has an industry-leading after-sales support delivered locally, on a global scale delivering preventative maintenance and priority breakdown cover to ensure that your lab is free from worry and downtime is always at a minimum.

i-FlowLab technology
i-FlowLab utilizes the latest in Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) technology alongside Carbon Molecular Sieve (CMS). To produce nitrogen, compressed air is fed into the dual pressure CMS vessels and it undergoes a cycle of compression and decompression where oxygen is absorbed and nitrogen is passed downstream. Our CMS banks are packed using a ‘snowstorm’ filling technique, allowing for around 18% more carbon to be compacted into the carbon bed. This ultimately prevents gas channeling and ensures i-FlowLab can deliver maximum levels of nitrogen purity (up to 99.9995% or 5 ppm oxygen). Furthermore, integrating i-FlowLab with our compressed air pre-filtration system, PureAir, guarantees the highest quality output by cleaning air before it enters the generator.

PSA Technology

i-FlowLab is a centralized gas solution that eliminates the safety hazards associated with cylinders and liquid nitrogen dewars by virtue of its safety, reliability, stability, and cost-effectiveness. With its proven technology and high-quality standards, Peak Scientific has the ability to provide a high quality service to customers from when you buy your generator and to support the product to ensure it continues to perform in your laboratory for years to come.

 

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If you liked this article, check out these other blogs:
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