Fermentation system

The RTF-5 is a fermentation system from Real Time Engineering providing a standalone solution for benchtop fermentation.

It is especially suitable for research applications and product development. A small bench space footprint reduces clutter and assists with concurrent runs.

The system introduces several innovations to improve the consistency of processes and reliability of operation. A port sealing method providing zero shear stress seals and an integrated bottom mounted sample port enhance the sterility of the process.

A bottom mounted brushless DC stirrer motor reduces maintenance requirements and head plate clutter.

It also includes three digital mass flow controllers for gas flow and four reversible variable speed peristaltic pumps.

The controllers allow tuning of all PID parameters and aspects such as output limits and dead band regions. Controllers can be cascaded so that the output of one controller operates as the setpoint for another.

The entire system is driven by an embedded PC so tasks such as data logging, archiving and run documentation are handled by the RTF-5 rather than requiring an external supervisory computer.