Mesa Laboratories

Mesa Labs will be giving away a Defender gas flow calibration standard at the 2013 AIHce conference held in Montreal, Canada, at the Palais des congres de Montreal on May 18-23. Mesa will be located at booth number 809. We will have iPads set up so attendees can quickly register themselves to win this state [...]

A customer recently contacted us detailing how positive biological indicators (BIs) were popping up in their Vapor Hydrogen Peroxide (VHP) process. The customer explained that they had no trouble with a square shaped room but when the configuration of the room changed (to an L-shaped room for example), they would experience unexpected positives. The positive [...]

Richard Parsons, a volunteer for WORTH and a full-time Davita employee, traveled to Belize this last February to train local people in the country to administer dialysis to patients and run the equipment needed. By doing this the units are able to develop and eventually become self-sustaining. They will never turn a patient away because [...]

Lakewood, Colorado, April 17, 2013 – Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB) (we, us, our, “Mesa” or the “Company”) today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.14 per share of common stock. The dividend will be payable on June 14, 2013, to shareholders of record on May 27, 2013.
About Mesa [...]

Mesa is preparing to exhibit at the Interphex expo, a top pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical trade show held each year. Many key people in this industry attend to see new products, meet new customers, and to network with fellow community members. There are over 1000 product lines that represent every product category at the show and 650+ supplies that come to feature their latest innovations.

This year it will be held again at the Javits Center in New York, New York. The show exhibits will be open Tuesday April 23, 2013 through Thursday April 25, 2013. There are also 52 conference sessions that can be attended in 3 days.

While there, Mesa will be highlighting 2 new products: Intenna and Thermowell. DataTrace® InTenna is attached to the vessel by using a standard clamp fitting and sealed inside the vessel through any common service outlet. This enhanced capability means that retort cook cycles will always be able to hit their mark using the real-time feedback of the wireless data. DataTrace® Thermowell Data Logger allows for the addition/removal of the logger without breaking the seal! This logger is ideal for monitoring temperatures in a sealed container such as a can or bottle or for an SIP or CIP system at the typical monitor points where the Thermowell can be welded directly into piping allowing the logger to be easily removed and replaced when desired without shutting down the process. Continue Reading

The time spent developing a validation series for a retort or an autoclave, trying to get just the right cycle time, vacuum dwell, or steam injection, can be expensive and nail-bitingly tense. For retorts it's the grueling cycles that may prove to be wasted labor due to an insufficient dwell time.

A typical problem that occurs in the sterilization and cooking industry is the expense of time and labor involved in performing a process that ends with an unsuccessful kill of the target organism or incomplete cooking. This can occur for a variety of reason such as incorrect calculations, miscommunications, or thermocouple sensor failures or malfunctions. This can lead to wasted product and labor, repair costs, re-performing cycles or validations. When forced to make decisions about the cycle without the proper, up-to-date information necessary, the costs go up and they add up quick.

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Last week, we announced the launch of our new Smart-Well® 1710 incubator as part of our Smart-Read EZTest^® Biological Monitoring System.  In this video, we show you how to configure and use the new Smart-Well Incubator using the easy-to-use touch screen interface. Continue Reading

Lakewood, Colorado, March 28th 2013
Mesa Labs, a Colorado-based process monitoring and validation solutions provider, has received 510(k) notification from the Food and Drug Administration for their new Smart-Well 1710 Biological Indicator Incubator.
Mesa Labs is pleased to announce that it has received 510(k) notification for its new 1710 Smart-Well® Incubator--part of the Smart-Read® Biological Indicator Monitoring [...]

In this video, Torqo International Channel Manager Greg Wilson demonstrates how to run a simple cap removal test using the Torqo Model 1600 computerized cap torque analyzer. For more on the Torqo computerized cap torque analyzer, click here.

When selecting a biological indicator (BI), there are a lot of things to consider, but the three most important considerations are below:

1. What Type of Sterilization Is It?

Sterilization processes vary from chemicals to extreme temperatures to plasma infused chambers. These processes are all detrimental to the survival of biological materials but the selection of what particular biological indicator to use for each individual process is of extreme importance.

Biological indicators are made up of bacterial spores presented on or within some form of carrier which can vary depending on the specific application. The spores themselves have been selected for a particular process due to their inherent resistance. Geobacillus stearothermophilus is the ideal species to select for Steam and H202, Bacillus atrophaeus is appropriate for monitoring Ethylene Oxide and Dry Heat sterilization and Bacillus pumilus spores have shown specific resistance to gamma irradiation sterilization processes.

2. What Product Is Being Sterilized?

A cold, 2 Liter flask of water would take much longer to reach sterilization temperatures than a 100 ml flask of water in a steam sterilizer. Similarly, the products that are introduced to the sterilization cycle can have a dramatic effect on the sterilizer’s ability to effectively deliver lethal insult. Is the product a solid or a liquid? If solid, it is porous? What is the position within the pack/product that will be the most difficult spot to achieve sterilization conditions? All of this information is useful when discussing proper BI placement and selection. Continue Reading