BioArc Ultra High Density -80°C Automated Sample Storage System

BioArc Ultra is Azenta's highest-density automated store for -80 °C collections. It is intended as an alternative to rooms full of manual ULT freezers in biobanks, vaccine and biological research, manufacturing and clinical sample warehousing, and handles tubes, vials, bottles, syringes, plates, racks and cryoboxes in one system.

Cooling uses an open-cycle refrigeration technology that works with air rather than chemical refrigerants, so there is no refrigerant to top up and the system has zero global warming and ozone depletion potential. Azenta states it can use up to 75% less power and up to 72% less floor space than an equivalent freezer farm. Two refrigeration units per bank provide redundancy, and a Snow Catcher removes moisture so the store runs without defrost cycles.

Samples sit behind a patented insulated tile wall; a retrieval opens less than 1% of the wall, and robotic picking takes place outside the storage space at -80 °C or -20 °C, so non-selected samples are not exposed to warming. The included ARCON software provides inventory, audit trails, chain-of-custody reporting and LIMS integration.