KoolPlate™, could this be the green approach to cooling your paraffin blocks?

Simport launched the KoolPlate™ a few months ago. The KoolPlate™ is a flat tray with elevated sides designed to be precooled overnight in a freezer. When taken out, it can maintain a surface temperature below zero degrees for up to 4 hours, based on our internal testing.

This device allows the precooling of tissue embedded in paraffin blocks before cutting them on a microtome. A warm block will not cut well enough to enable consistent ribboning and create 3 to 5-quality micron thin sections. For this reason, large cooling plates are seen next to every microtome in histology labs.

These large mechanical cooling devices work with compressors. They require electrical energy, often made with carbon-generating activity. The manufacturing of these devices, expensive to produce, will require energy and will produce GHGs. Finally, these systems use mechanical compressors that often use gases detrimental to the ozone layer if not captured at the end of the device’s life. Not very cool for a cooling device.

The KoolPlate™, on the other hand, is a passive device. It generates energy from an existing cooling device, a freezer lab, and dispenses it slowly over half a day. Own two, and you can cover an entire 8-hour shift! On top of that, the condensation that eventually will form on the KoolPlate™ is in liquid form. As any experienced microtomist will tell you, a wet block cuts much better than a dry one. In reality, this is like using the old ice cube maker that old folks like me were subject to, without the mess and with greater efficiency.

In a world where we strive towards simple, low-tech solutions that reduce global warming, consider the KoolPlate™ as a solution for your lab. Simplicity and efficiency at the service of our environment!