Over the past few years, a trend has emerged in the field of laboratory fume hood design: reduced flow fume hoods. These hoods are designed to operate with exhaust volumes as low as 50% less than conventional fume hoods. Reduced flow hoods can provide the fume hood owner with significant initial capital construction cost savings as well as continuous operating cost savings while providing the fume hood user with a safer operating environment. There have been numerous studies done by some of the top fume hood testers, and they've come to the conclusion that there is no statistical correlation between average face velocity and how the hood performs. If you have a superior fume hood design you can achieve better containment while operating at lower face velocities, which is the definition of a 'high-performance fume hood'.

Lab Crafters has been the industry leader in this design trend, introducing our patented, high performance Air SENTRY™ fume hood in 1997. The Air Sentry™ fume hood was the first high performance fume hood to be introduced to the market and although since that time, many fume hood manufacturers have tried to follow Lab Crafters' lead, their products still cannot match our Air Sentry™ fume hood's PERFORMANCE or ENERGY EFFICIENCY. We have over 1200 Air Sentry fume hoods installed across the country, with orders for many more.

The benefits of the Air Sentry™ high performance fume hood include:

• The Air Sentry™ fume hood provide superior containment when compared to conventional fume hoods.
• The Air Sentry™ fume hood is designed to operate in "real world" conditions with dynamic challenges that are typically found in laboratories, including cross drafts, temperature and pressure fluctuations in the lab space, walk-by traffic, fume hood loading, etc.
• The highly efficient operation of the Air Sentry™ fume hood results in significant and guaranteed costs savings for mechanical equipment (for new construction) and on annual operating costs.
• The Air Sentry™ fume hood's lower airflows result in quieter operation and are ideal for delicate research involving use of powders or precise measuring equipment inside the fume hood.
• The Air Sentry™ fume hood's robust design allows it to operate in Cleanroom environments up to Class 100 Standards.
  

The Lab Crafters Air Sentry™ fume hood is the most technologically advanced fume hood on the market and has been proven, time and again, to significantly out perform the competition in terms of both containment performance and guaranteed energy savings. Through mathematical modeling and ASHRAE 110 testing, we studied the airflow patterns in the fume hood chamber. We determined that if we, by design, created a specific airflow pattern inside the fume hood chamber, the fume hood performance was greatly enhanced. Our design causes the air entering through the sash opening to form a 'roll' in the upper chamber. This roll of air is called a vortex. Lab Crafters determined that the reason why fume hoods lose containment is the vortex becomes turbulent and collapses. Lab Crafters devised a way to make sure that vortex does not break down and collapse.

The two main features of this patented hood are the mathematical formula used to determine the dimensions of the fume hood and the automatically adjusting baffle system.

To enhance containment, Lab Crafters' Air Sentry fume hood utilizes an integral safety control system to adjust the rear baffle slots, maintaining the ideal airflow pattern at all times within the hood. A sensor within the fume hood sidewall detects if the potential exists for a collapse of the vortex. If one is detected, the controls automatically adjust the rear baffle slots in real time to respond to the dynamic lab environment.

 
Integral Safety Control – Automatically Adjusting Rear Baffle System

We have reams of test data available and countless satisfied customers which can attest to the Air Sentry™ fume hood's unparalleled performance. If you would like to visit our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility on Long Island, New York, to witness, firsthand, the Air Sentry™ fume hood in our test lab, and our showroom of laboratory casework products, please do not hesitate to contact us to arrange an appointment. We are also available to come to your facility for "Lunch & Learn" seminars to educate you and your colleagues on high performance fume hoods.

We look forward to working with you on your upcoming project.

Click here to view a video of the Air Sentry Fume Hood Smoke Visualization Tests.