Are your samples getting "cooked" and evaporated whether you like it or not? We've been asked a number of times this year alone to address the problems associated with external heat sources exhausting over or near their precious samples and either evaporating or contaminating them.

Several recent examples included a review of a CTC Autosampler that was mounted over a Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectometry unit. Unfortunately the open rack of ten 20mL vials was hung over the vent ports, and the samples were constantly being evaporated due to the heat.

We evaluated and resolved the problem via a 2 x 5 Thermal Tube rack that not only insulated the vials from the heat exhaust, but allowed the end-user to sustain a constant set temperature (pictured).

Another major pharma required an open four-plate tray on their Cohesive system. The tray provides stable long-term cooling to the plates and eliminates the day to day ambient temperature fluctuations that effected their samples and more importantly their end results.

Stay tuned for yet another similar issue with plate readers and the struggle to keep the plate from getting "cooked" due to internal heat exhaust problems. Most labs need their plates sustained at or around 20 - 22°C but have measured internal temp of plate as high as 29° - 30°C...not good!

Have you experienced similar issues with temperature sensitive applications? Tell us about it in the comments.