Who uses glass Dewars with liquid nitrogen?

[Jon Spear]

Hello,

I am trying to find out who uses low profile glass Dewars for liquid nitrogen.

The reason I want to know is that I am making foam dewars that are designed to replace glass Dewars. My products are described at: " spearlab dot com " (as a new forum user, I am not yet able to post a direct url link).

So far, I have sold my product almost exclusively to the protein crystallography community. I am trying to find out who else might have use for foam dewars.

The advantages that a foam dewar has over a glass Dewar include
safety, ease of handling, less ice formation, and lower cost.

My background is not in the biological sciences, and I am hoping to receive insight about who (besides x-ray crystallographers) might be interested in my product.

Thanks in advance for your advice,

Jon

[danfive]

Follow the link ----> Dewars, Dewar Flasks, Dewar Flasks and Vessels, Glass Tempering Beakers, Cole-Parmer Stainless Steel Dewars and Tempering Beakers, Cylindrical Dewar Flasks with Handles, Low Form Dewar Flasks for Liquid Nitrogen, Stainless Steel LN 2 Dewars, Dewars w

These are the most common type of dewars used in most microbiology, genetics, tissue-culturing labs etc. They are either stainless steel or aluminum.

[Jon Spear]

My question is not what Dewars are available.

I need to know who uses them.

You mention microbiology, genetics, and tissue-culturing. What processes in those fields require the use of cryogenic temperatures, and are there associations I could look into for those fields of study?

[danfive]

Who uses/buys them? Researchers, (called Principal Investigators) at research universities, biomedical research centers, college biology departments. They are used to snap-freeze cells, tissues, DNA/RNA, plasmids etc (which are in little plastic tubes) all for storage reasons.

So you use them to bring liq N2 from a tank, into the lab bench and you dip your samples into your liq N2, with some very long forceps---then frozen samples are put in cold storage at about -80C.

How do you contact these people? To sell them stuff, maybe the most common distributors of lab supplies (Fisher Sci, VWR, Sigma etc) can list your item; there are lab vendor fairs; or you can market to life science lab research institutes, like by sending promotional emails into those institutions; also you can usually get permission to physically post flyers on most University campuses--so target the Biology dept.

[danfive]

I saw your website, don't know how sturdy the foam is, but if its about the same rigidity as hard plastic, you may also want to make small cooler like boxes. Labs also use and store dry ice, all of my disposable styrofoam coolers are lousy and the dry ice pellets quickly evaporate.

[danfive]

more users: government agencies (that preserve samples in-field for later disease testing), forensic labs, medical and veterinary diagnostic labs, pharmaceutical/biotech companies (a lot of cell culturing and other samples)

[Jon Spear]

danfive,

Thanks for checking out my site, and for your thoughtful replies.

My product has been received favorably by the x-ray crystallography community. I went to a conference this summer, and made deals with three distributors (Hampton Research, Molecular Dimensions, and Jena Bioscience). Those distributors specialize in supplies exclusively for crystallography.

I think I am not quite ready to make a pitch to the really big suppliers that you mention (Fischer, VWR, Sigma), so that is why I am looking for another niche market, comparable to protein crystallography.

The foam I use is not as hard as the plastic used for the Igloo type coolers that can be bought at the local supermarket for $25. Those are made with inner and outer shells of polyethylene, with polyurethane foam in between.

What sort of lab work do you do, and how might I adapt my product so that people in your field would want to purchase it?

-Jon

[danfive]

Other distributors to consider: Daigger and Genesee Scientific ---great vendors, carry unique items, and not as monolithic as VWR and Fisher Sci.

Adaptations?? Well for lab bench use, the standard vessel's wide base is good for stability and short height would make freezing epi tubes (1.5ml) easier---can probably do without long forceps. Some adaptation on the tall vessel to make pouring small amounts of Liq N2 out also would be good---this is useful when we freeze a sample in a mortar prior to grinding it up; or when freezing plant samples prior to lyophilization. 1.8 L capacity seems good for lab work, but maybe smaller could work just as well say 1L.