Is Your Biosafety Cabinet Motor Costing You Time and Money?

If so, arming yourself with the right information could result in significant operational and maintenance cost savings for your facility – as well as increase productivity.Motor technology has greatly improved since Class II biological safety cabinets were first developed in the early 1960s. The original biosafety cabinets were typically operated by a Permanent Split Capacitor (PSC) type motor. A PSC motor is a single-phase alternating current (AC) induction motor. These original PSC motors were not very energy efficient and tended to generate high amounts of waste heat. This prompted biosafety cabinet manufacturers to seek more energy-efficient motor technologies.

Today, two types of motors are commonly used for more energy-efficient biosafety cabinet operation:

• 3-Phase AC motors, and
• Electronically Commutated Motors (ECMs)

An ECM is a brushless, direct current (DC) motor, which the majority of cabinet manufacturers utilize. Three-phase motors and ECMs each require about the same amount of energy to run, and both run significantly more efficiently and much cooler than a comparable PSC (classic AC motor).*

Baker is actually the only biological safety cabinet manufacturer to feature a 3-phase AC Variable Frequency Design (VFD) motor/controller system (our StediFLOW™ technology). Contrary to conventional wisdom, StediFLOW is not the same as an old AC motor.

Three-phase AC VFD motor/controllers, which are most often used to balance and monitor airflow for sophisticated HVAC systems, provide at least four distinct advantages over DC-ECM motors when used in biological safety cabinets:

• The reduction or elimination of motor starters;
• Less stress on the AC motor windings and bearings;
• A decrease in stress and wear on the pump or fan itself; and, ultimately
• Increased motor blower reserve and longer filter life

This all equates to less down time (and therefore greater productivity) and considerably less operational and maintenance costs for your facility.

Learn More About StediFLOW™

Learn how StediFLOW and our other energy-saving technology, ReadySAFE™, can help save you up to 75% in operational costs.