York College of Pennsylvania was facing a challenge. The college was expanding its science program to serve more nursing, pharmaceutical technology and forensic chemistry students. The expanding lab curriculum had to serve 160 general chemistry students, as well as organic chemistry classes, with lab sections that included as many as 20 [...]
The University of Notre Dame’s new McCourtney Hall of Molecular Science and Engineering is a research facility built around the University’s vision of multi-disciplinary “research neighborhoods,” which would co-locate scientists with overlapping interests. Completed in 2016, McCourtney Hall is a 219,500 GSF building, with 100,000 ASF of open lab and team spaces. Some of the [...]
Summary: Scientific research must advance rapidly in order to yield timely, relevant results and earn continued funding. Using the right equipment can eliminate bottlenecks that slow down the pace of advancement. This case study reviews Shedd Aquarium’s choice to install a VACUU·LAN® local vacuum network to remove a bottleneck from their research into optimized microbiomes [...]
BSL3 or Biosafety level 3 labs are specialized labs working with highly communicable and pathogenic microbes often transmissible by way of inhalation.[1] These labs can be found in clinical, diagnostic, teaching, research, or production facilities.[2] Recently, a local vacuum network was installed in the Boston area for a BSL 3 laboratory suite. The project was a [...]
In order to support a strong STEM program, DeMatha Catholic High School (Hyattsville, MD) renovated and modernized their science classrooms and laboratories in 2011. Students and their parents participated quite actively in this project, donating their time and talents in order to help avoid cost overruns on this tightly budgeted project. The school was fortunate enough [...]
The prestigious Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) had some issues to resolve. Their existing central vacuum system could not get down to the chemistry quality vacuum level they required to run their more demanding applications. How could they add another laboratory-wide vacuum system while still staying within the tight budget framework that they had [...]
The University of Notre Dame is expanding rapidly. Part of that expansion includes new lab buildings on campus. In 2016, McCourtney Hall was built, adding 140,000 square feet of multidisciplinary research labs. In part due to recent problems with central vacuum systems on campus – including the complete failure of one central system – the university [...]
While VACUU-LAN® local vacuum networks are often part of new laboratory designs and renovations, installed by plumbing contractors, because of their ease of installation, they can also be installed by system end-users. Such was the case at the University of Colorado where the lab coordinator and undergraduates of the university chemistry department installed their own local [...]
In 2012, Purdue University’s Biochemistry department noticed that the vacuum system in their building was eating a hole in the budget. Analysis by design firm Loftus Engineering showed that running the vacuum system had annual operating costs of about $400,000. On top of the astronomical costs, researchers and students were not able to depend on the [...]
