Patent ID: 7235140

Claim:
A method for removing paraffin from a tissue embedding mold, comprising the steps of: (a) placing a tissue embedding mold containing paraffin in a mold receiving chamber of a cleaning vessel; (b) introducing an aqueous cleaning solution into the mold receiving chamber of the cleaning vessel in an amount to cover the tissue embedding mold; (c) heating the aqueous cleaning solution to at least the melting point of the paraffin contained on the tissue embedding mold; (d) maintaining the tissue embedding mold in the heated aqueous cleaning solution for a selected period of time wherein at least a portion of the paraffin on the tissue embedding mold melts from the tissue embedding mold to produce a paraffin containing aqueous cleaning solution; (e) removing the paraffin containing aqueous cleaning solution from the mold receiving chamber of the cleaning vessel; (f) repeating steps (b)–(e) until the tissue embedding mold is substantially free of paraffin; (g) introducing the paraffin containing aqueous cleaning solution removed from the mold receiving chamber of the cleaning vessel into a tank provided with a plurality of baffles; (h) heating a lower end of the baffles to a temperature at least the melting point of the paraffin; (i) maintaining an upper end of the baffles at a temperature below the melting point of the paraffin; (j) passing the paraffin containing aqueous cleaning solution over the upper end of the baffles where the paraffin in the paraffin containing aqueous cleaning solution solidifies on the upper end of the baffles thereby separating the paraffin from the paraffin containing aqueous cleaning solution to produce a treated aqueous cleaning solution; and (k) removing the treated aqueous cleaning solution from the tank.