What is the IVC Mini AMU ?
IVC stands for individually ventilated cage. It is an arrangement of plastic cages in a supporting rack where air is supplied and exhausted independently to each cage via manifolds. The IVC requires an air management unit to supply and exhaust this air in a controlled and instrumented fashion, and this is the part of the system that QAT supply which is exclusive to Arrowmight. The Mini AMU is a cut down version of the AMU Mk 4/5
It has a single fan running in manual mode and a gauge showing air change rate. It is most suited to smaller scale IVC systems or where budget constraints require a cost effective solution.
Applications
The IVC is used for under-taking biotechnology experiments. Depending on the nature of the experiment, either product or operator protection may be optimised by running in a positive or negative pressure mode. Positive would for example be used with an SPF (sterile pathogen free) experiment; whist negative pressure would for example be used with pathogenic infected subjects. Although only a single fan system, the Mini AMU utilises a special "Rotavalve" on top to change the pressure mode from positive to negative
How does it work?
The Mini AMU has a single fan configured via a valve that can either push or pull air through the IVC System.
There is a battery standby system in case of mains power failure.
Advantages
The main advantages of the Mini AMU over the AMU Mk 4/5 are: lower cost, simpler design, and smaller volume taken up.
