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AIF Acquires New High Pressure Freezer from Leica

Leica EM ICE high pressure freezing system enables users to preserve samples in a near native state and capture and resolve highly dynamic processes at the nanometer scale with millisecond precision. The system is equipped with light stimulation to enable photosensitive experiments. Once preserved, high-pressure-frozen samples can be analyzed with AIF’s cryo-EM.

The Leica EM AFS2 freeze substitution system is able to progressively lower temperature and low temperature embedding and polymerization of resins. This is typically used in conjunction with high pressure freezing.


Technical Specifications

Supply voltage: 200-240 V / 50/60 Hz

Power consumption: max. 1400 W (at stand-by 160 W)

Current: max. 6 A for 230 V

LN2 consumption during cool down: 8 liter

LN2 consumption in operation (incl. cooling down): 30 liter / day

LN2 consumption per freezing process: 80 ml

Volumetric capacity of the LN2 dewar: 15 liter

Nitrogen gas emission: 50 m3 /day

Noise level during pressure build-up: 60 dB(A)

Max. noise level during freezing process: 75 dB(A)

Dimensions and Weight

Size / weight

89 (width) × 151 (depth) × 155 (height) cm, 510 kg (Instrument packed)

116 (width) × 79(depth) × 1285 (height) cm, 380 kg* (Main body plus working station)

*NB! Additional 12 kg should be considered when the instrument is filled with LN2

Working Parameters

Working pressure: 2100 bar – 2300 bar

Rise time: 4 ms – 7 ms

Shift p/T: 0 ms – 3.0 ms

hp Dwell: 250.0 ms – 400.0 ms

Cooling rate: 12 000 K/s – 25 000 K/s

Illumination, Optics, and Mechanics

LED spot illumination: 8600 lx built in

Observation: M80 + 16x eyepieces

Magnification: 3x to 10x (S6E); 6x to 48x (M80)