Laminar flow cabinet - wikipedia Laminar flow cabinet Laminar flow cabinet Laminar flow hood Uses Particulate removal Related items Biosafety cabinet Fume hood This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( June 2014 ) A laminar flow cabinet or laminar flow closet or tissue culture hood is a carefully enclosed bench designed to prevent contamination of semiconductor wafers, biological samples, or any particle sensitive materials. Air is drawn through a HEPA filter and blown in a very smooth, laminar flow towards the user. Due to the direction of air flow, the sample is protected from the user but the user is not protected from the sample. The cabinet is usually made of stainless steel with no gaps or joints where spores might collect. Such hoods exist in both horizontal and vertical configurations, and there are many different types of cabinets with a variety of airflow patterns and acceptable uses. Laminar flow cabinets may have a UV - C germicidal lamp to sterilize the interior and contents before usage to prevent contamination of experiment. Germicidal lamps are usually kept on for 15 minutes to sterilize the interior and no contact is to be made with a laminar flow hood during this time. During this time, scientists normally prepare other materials to maximize efficiency. ( It is important to switch this light off during use, to limit exposure to skin and eyes as stray ultraviolet light emissions can cause cancer and cataracts. ) See also Fume hood Biosafety cabinet External links Primary Containment for Biohazards : Selection, Installation and Use of Biological Safety Cabinets 3rd Edition Sept. 2007 USA CDC NSF / ANSI Standard 49 Laboratory equipment General Heaters Dryers Alcohol burner Bunsen burner Desiccator Heating mantle Hot plate Lab oven Kiln Meker -- Fisher burner Striker Teclu burner Water bath Vacuum dry box Mixers Shakers Chemostat Homogenizer Liquid whistle Magnetic stirrer Mortar and pestle Shaker Sonicator Static mixer Stirring rod Vortex mixer Wash bottle Stands Clamps Holders Beaker clamp Clamp holder Tripod Burette clamp Extension clamp Flask clamp Funnel support Iron ring Pinch clamp Retort stand Screw clamp Test tube holder Test tube rack Wire gauze Lab drying rack Containers Storage Agar plate Cryogenic storage dewar Incubator Laminar flow cabinet Microtiter plate Petri dish Picotiter plate Refrigerator Weighing boat Weighing dish Other items Aspirator Autoclave Balance brush Cork borer Crucible Filter paper File Forceps Centrifuge Microscope Pipeclay triangle Spectrophotometer Splint Stopper Scoopula Spatula Test tube brush Wire brush Inoculation needle Inoculation loop Glassware Apparatus Dean -- Stark Soxhlet extractor Kipp 's Bottles Boston round Pycnometer Condensers Cold finger Liebig Dishes Evaporating Petri Watch glass Flasks Büchner Vacuum ( Dewar ) Erlenmeyer Fernbach Fleaker Florence Retort Round - bottom Schlenk Volumetric Funnels Büchner Hirsch Dropping Separatory Measuring devices Burette Conical measure Cuvette Eudiometer Graduated cylinder Ostwald viscometer Pipette Pipette ( dropper ) Tubes Boiling Drying Cragie Ignition Nuclear magnetic resonance ( NMR ) Test Thiele Thistle Other items Beaker Gas syringe Vial Analytical chemistry Compositional AutoAnalyzer CHN analyzer Colorimeter Inductively coupled plasma ( ICP ) device Gas chromatograph ( GC ) Liquid Chromatograph ( LC ) Mass spectrometer ( MS ) pH indicator pH meter Microscopy Scanning electron microscope ( SEM ) Transmission electron microscope ( TEM ) Thermochemistry Calorimeter differential scanning Melting - point apparatus Thermometer Thermogravimetric analyzer ( TGA ) Other items Analytical balance Colony counter Spiral plater Nuclear magnetic resonance ( NMR ) instrument Plate reader Electronics Ammeter Current source Function generator Galvanostat Multimeter Network analyzer Oscilloscope Pulse generator Potentiostat Spectrum analyzer Time - domain reflectometer Voltage source Voltmeter Safety Personal protective equipment ( PPE ) Lab coat Face shield Respirator Rubber apron Safety shower Eye and hand Acid - resistant gloves Eyewash station Glove box Medical gloves Nitrile gloves Safety glasses Safety goggles Other items Acid ( solvent ) cabinet Biosafety cabinet Fire blanket Fire extinguisher Fume hood Instruments used in medical laboratories References Jump up ^ `` Types of Laminar Flow Cabinets -- Uses and Benefits -- Information Guide ''. www.laminarflows.co.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2018. Jump up ^ https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTERPRETATIONS&p_id=24755 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Laminar_flow_cabinet&oldid=840542730 '' Categories : Laboratory equipment Microbiology equipment Ventilation Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from June 2014 All articles needing additional references Talk About Wikipedia Čeština Deutsch Español Français Italiano Nederlands 日本 語 Polski Русский Svenska 4 more Edit links This page was last edited on 10 May 2018, at 15 : 37 ( UTC ). About Wikipedia

Question: when should a laminar flow cabinet be used
Answer: to prevent contamination of semiconductor wafers, biological samples, or any particle sensitive materials