Getting to know the types of incubators

Incubator is one of the widely used equipment that has 3 industrial, medical and laboratory models depending on the type of use. The main task of the incubator is to provide the necessary conditions such as humidity, temperature, oxygen, carbon dioxide and heat necessary for survival and growth.

Incubator components

Depending on the type and usage, the incubator has different components that create different features. But all incubators are the main components of the sample storage chamber, gas control system, humidity control system and temperature control system. Each of these systems is needed to create the necessary conditions for survival and growth of samples.

Types of incubators

Industrial incubator

Industrial incubators, which are more commonly known as hatching machines, are mostly used in poultry farms. These incubators are one of the first incubators that were created and are used to store eggs until the chicks hatch. The first incubators were built in ancient Egypt and China. At that time, they set aside a room to keep the eggs and use fire to keep it warm. In this way, the hens were free to lay eggs again. With the advancement of technology, wood and alcohol furnaces are used to heat the environment, and now electricity is used.

Medical incubator

In medicine, incubators are used to save the lives of babies who are born at less than 37 weeks of pregnancy. The first baby incubator was built in 1884 in Paris. At that time, an oil lamp was used to keep the environment of the incubator warm. Over time, with the development of electricity, the first electric incubators were used in America. The purpose of keeping premature babies in the incubator was to maintain the baby’s body temperature, provide enough nutrition for growth, and also prevent possible infections due to the low immune system. Babies who are born prematurely (40 weeks) have problems in controlling their body temperature and normal breathing due to the lack of energy and the lack of development of the nervous and respiratory systems. By maintaining the necessary humidity, providing the energy needed for growth, and also controlling the temperature of the environment based on the temperature of the baby’s skin, the incubator provides the necessary conditions for the survival and growth of the baby.

Laboratory incubator

Laboratory incubators are one of the most widely used equipment in microbiology and biology laboratories, whose main purpose is to maintain the required conditions such as oxygen, humidity, temperature and other things for the survival and growth of microorganisms and tissues. Today, various types of Laboratory incubators are made with different features and applications, which we will examine one by one.

Standard incubator

It is one of the simplest and at the same time the most widely used equipment used in microbial and biology laboratories in the field of biochemistry, hematology, cell culture and microbial research, as well as cell data bank (DNA).

Refrigerated or cooling incubator

Unlike standard incubators, refrigerated incubators have the ability to adjust the temperature from -5 to +65 and are mostly used for bacterial cultivation in microbiology laboratories. Also, in addition to the cultivation of microorganisms, it is sometimes used to dry the dishes and equipment used in the laboratory or to store blood serums.

CO2 (carbon dioxide) incubator

This type of incubator is often used for tissue culture and living organisms in biological laboratories. The required CO2 inside the incubator chamber is supplied through the tank connected to it, and the temperature inside the chamber is usually constant at 37 degrees Celsius. The presence of a certain amount of CO2 inside the chamber is required for the stability of sodium bicarbonate, which is used as a buffer to adjust the pH of the environment.

Wet incubator

In addition to the ability to control the temperature, the humid incubator has the ability to adjust the humidity inside the chamber. This humidity is provided by heating the distilled water in the incubator tank, which enters the chamber through a valve. In addition to the temperature control system and the heating system inside this incubator, a cooling system has been used to control the amount of humidity inside the chamber.

Shikardar Incubator

Shakerdar incubator has a plate with circular and linear rotation capability, which is mostly used for aerobic samples grown in liquid environment and fluid mixing. In addition to the temperature regulation system, this category of incubators also has a cooling system to reduce the temperature of the sample lower than the outside environment.

Hybridization Incubator

This category of incubators, in addition to having the main features of an incubator, have rods to hold hybridization glasses of different sizes and rotate them at a set speed.