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Cabinet and Hood
Biological safety cabinets, laminar flow hoods, PCR workstations, compounding isolators and animal research workstations for containment, product protection and contamination control.
Authorized distributor for Esco — NSF/ANSI 49 listed.
Safety cabinet or laminar flow? They are not interchangeable
This is the single most consequential choice on this page, and getting it wrong puts people at risk.
- Biological safety cabinet — protects the operator, the product and the environment. Required for any work with infectious agents or human-derived material.
- Laminar flow hood — protects the product only. Air flows over the work surface toward the operator. Never use one for biohazardous material.
Class II types explained
Class II A2 — 70% recirculated, 30% exhausted through HEPA. The general-purpose cabinet for BSL-1 to BSL-3 microbiological work. Can be exhausted to the room or ducted via thimble connection.
Class II B2 — 100% exhausted, no recirculation. Required when working with volatile toxic chemicals or radionuclides alongside biological material. Needs dedicated hard ducting and a dedicated exhaust blower.
B2 cabinets cost substantially more to install and operate. Specify one only when your protocol genuinely involves volatiles — an A2 covers most laboratory work.
Certification is not optional
Biological safety cabinets must be certified to NSF/ANSI 49 on installation, after any relocation, after filter replacement, and at least annually. An uncertified cabinet provides no documented protection.
We coordinate on-site certification with accredited field technicians in South Florida.
PCR cabinets
PCR workstations are dead-air or laminar flow enclosures with UV decontamination, designed to prevent amplicon carry-over. They are for contamination control in nucleic acid setup — they are not biological safety cabinets and offer no operator protection.
Animal research needs its own equipment
Compounding isolators are not biosafety cabinets
A biological safety cabinet works with an open front: air is drawn inward across the opening to protect the operator. A compounding isolator is closed. The work zone is sealed from the room and reached only through gloveports, and it is held at a controlled pressure relative to the room.
That difference is what USP <797> and USP <800> are built around. A positive-pressure isolator, or CAI, keeps room air out and is used for non-hazardous sterile preparations. A negative-pressure isolator, or CACI, keeps hazardous drug residue in, and is what USP <800> calls for when compounding antineoplastic and cytotoxic drugs.
A Class II cabinet cannot substitute for either one in a compounding pharmacy, and an isolator is not a replacement for a biosafety cabinet in a research lab. They solve different problems.
Not sure which class your protocol requires? Call +1 305 600 0444 — we will walk through it with you before you commit.