Airflow Test Laboratory

Monitoring tracer gas in the
breathing zone of a mannequin

The Airflow Test Laboratory is designed for research as well as to showcase our ventilation capabilities to visiting customers. Construction was completed in 1997. The facility enhances our capabilities to serve our customers with innovative ventilation products, ASHRAE testing, and replication of specific field situations and conditions.

Measuring over 500 square feet, the facility can accommodate a single custom fume hood up to 16 feet wide or four 4-foot fume hoods simultaneously. It has the capacity to handle air volumes of 8000 cubic feet per minute. Sophisticated software and direct digital controls allow us to monitor and regulate airflow conditions from a computer screen. The entire room is sealed, creating its own “microenvironment” so that a customer’s laboratory conditions can be recreated to troubleshoot existing ventilation problems or to anticipate possible future ventilation scenarios.

One hundred percent non-recirculated air to the room is provided from the outside after passing through both HEPA and carbon filters to ensure removal of contaminants which could interfere with sophisticated containment testing. The room supply air is heated and/or cooled to exact pre-set temperature requirements. Humidity may also be controlled and monitored.

Smoke tests demonstrate fume
hood containment

The Airflow Test Laboratory has fourteen laminar flow ceiling diffusers which introduce the supply air to the laboratory and can be individually controlled to provide the ultimate in supply air flexibility. We can shift supply air volumes toward or away from selected diffusers. Through the direct digital controls, we can vary the number of room air changes and create positive or negative pressure relative to the outside corridor.

The laboratory's range of performance is best demonstrated in person, so we encourage you to be our guest in the near future. Your visit will include hands on work in the Airflow Test Laboratory and tours of Labconco design and production departments. You'll also have an opportunity to inspect a wide array of Labconco laboratory equipment in our Demonstration Laboratory and Auditorium.

More About Labconco

Standards and Certification

• ISO Certification
• CE Marking
• ETL Electrical Safety Listings
• U.S. Green Building Council
• NSF Standard #49