Captair Store Filtering Storage cabinets by Erlab®

The laboratory is a work environment which presents many chemical hazards to which lab technicians are daily exposed, often undervaluing the threat for their health. As an example, this is comprehensible that lab technicians, from their workstation, need to immediately access to a large range of chemicals to perform their handlings. Unfortunately, it also means that these chemicals are generally stored on benchtops. The consequence of these numerous bottles presence is to release a concentration of noxious chemicals in the air lab. Even in small amounts and the fact that lab personal could get used to the odours, these vapours can have long term effects on lab technician’s health. The TLV (Threshold Limit Value*) defines for each chemical the concentration level at which a chemical becomes harmful to their health.

Based on this, erlab, the worldwide leader in lab filtration technologies for ductless fume hoods, has developed more than 10 years ago Captairstore, a complete range of filtering storage cabinets for the elimination of noxious concentration chemicals, evaporated from the commonly containers used in the lab.

The working principle of this safety storage device is to suck the air lab into enclosure through a ventilation slots located at the base of the cabinet, by creating a vacuum in the enclosed space of the cabinet throughout a vented system. All the vapours emitted from the bottles stored in the enclosure are drawn toward a filtration technology, adapted to the stored chemical typology. Harmful molecules and unpleasant odours are, by consequence, trapped by the filtering technology. The air discharged into the room is thus free from all harmful substances. Since no ductwork is required, a captair® Store filtering storage cabinet totally eliminates the direct discharge of pollutants into the atmosphere and therefore also contributes to the protection of the environment. The air discharged by the filter contains 50 times less pollutants than the acceptable values defined by the official bodies responsible for ensuring workplace safety. This permanent recirculation of the filtered air also serves to purify the ambient air of the laboratory.

The installation of a captair® store unit is very quick and easy: a single electrical outlet is all that is needed to make it work, its setting up can be realised at any time, without any complex forward planning. Its operational costs remain at minimum even when taking into account filter changes.

A storage solution for every laboratories needs…

Equipped with a captair® filtration technology offering large retention capacity, more than 600 commonly used chemicals can be retained by using a Captair®store filtering vented storage cabinets: acids, solvents, bases, powders.

The different Captair®store models allows the storing from small to important chemical quantities and also deliver a solution to the limited lab spaces:

The shelves models, Shelf 812 and Ministore 822 allows the storing from 16 to 48 bottles and could be installed on work surfaces or on a wall to save space. For an adaptable storage capacity, several shelves models may be installed side-by-side. The two isolate compartments of the Ministore allows the storage of chemicals incompatible with other chemicals.

For medium chemical quantities, the AVP and AVPS floor stand cabinets allows the storing of 100 bottles of 1 litre while a double enclosure is offered by the AVPD and APVDS models, allowing to store up to 200 bottles of 1 litre.

These floor stand cabinets allows the storage of the compatible chemicals (AVP & AVPD) and incompatible chemicals (AVPS, APVD and AVPS), thank to their isolated compartments.

The various standard and optional equipment such as the monitoring of the ventilation system, the sampling port for testing the filter saturation level of the filter, the adjustable shelves with magnetic signs for separating the types of chemicals stored, the spill tray with absorbent mat, the filter saturation electronic alarm for solvent, make Captairstore a real solution for the chemical storage.

In order to determine the captair® vented store cabinet suitable to the lab needs, erlab offers the ESP (erlab service program), a dedicated service for the complete study of the storage. This analysis allows our filtration experts to determine the adapted storage device and to give the best recommendations on how to store the different chemicals in the Captairstore ductless filtering storage cabinets.

*TLV: Threshold Limit Value / Occupational Exposure Limit – authorised 8h/day for a hazardous chemical. Value expressed in ppm (parts per million)