Cage & Rack WashersCage & Rack WashersBy definition, there are inherent qualities you expect to find in a well designed cage and rack washer: a powerful and effective spray pattern; versatile cycle programming; ease of maintenance and long equipment life. Yet in developing the Scientek range of washers, a unique mind-set has prevailed: Scientek’s goal has been to provide all of those inherent qualities, along with the ability to meet the changing demands of today’s research facilities. We also recognize that our commitment to the client exists not only at the time of purchase, but throughout the many years of our association. We look forward to showing you Scientek’s range of products and demonstrating what owning a well designed cage and rack washer is all about.
The outside says a lot about what’s on the inside. Take a close look at the cabinet construction and door hardware on a Scientek washer. You’ll see forged bronze door hinges with three layers of mirror finished chrome plating; you’ll see welded stainless steel cabinet work, polished and assembled with care. Open the cabinet door and you’ll see smooth sided cabinet walls with no exposed flanges and bolt connections at the panel seams. Our attention to details such as these not only adds many more years of useful life to the washer, it makes daily maintenance and cleanup very easy.
The heart of a good washer is in the spray pattern. If you’ve ever used your garden hose to wash leaves from your driveway, you’ll know that to get an effective spray you turn the hose nozzle to a fine hard jet. This is what engineers call “impinging” pressure, and this is exactly what makes a Scientek washer work so well. Our spray jets issue the wash and rinse solution in a forceful, direct stream to wipe the soil and bedding from a cage. While other washers spray in a “fan” pattern to gain coverage, we use spray arms rotating in an overlapping pattern to hit the complete wash load with our impinging jets. Our rotating spray arms are located on both sides of the cabinet, as well as on the interior ceiling and below the floor grating to ensure complete and constant coverage. This not only allows you to reduce or eliminate the need for a prewash step, but it speeds up the overall process and lets you reduce the concentration level of cleaning chemicals required for good results. An excellent wash, shorter cycle times and reduced chemical costs: it’s all in the spray pattern.
Safety and ease of use in every washer. Scientek’s equipment designers have kept safety and ease of use at the top of their priority list. Features such as an emergency stop button at both the load and unload sides of the washer; standard door safety switches to stop the wash pump when a door is opened in mid-cycle; and your choice of an interior door release or spring loaded explosion relief safety latches that open easily when pushed from the inside, will add to the operator’s peace of mind. Our easy to read control panel with cycle step indicators, L.E.D. temperature display and simple switches for cycle selection take the guess work out of running the unit.
The world is full of choices, but when it comes to selecting components for our washers we only choose the best. For example, Scientek’s piping control valves are pneumatically operated and will withstand the hot moist atmos-phere of a wash-up area far better than electric valves. All piping control valves are 316 stainless steel matched to stainless steel flange connections. No rubber or plastic hoses and clamps are used. In addition, the main wash pump fitted to Scientek units has been proven over the past thirty years to be one of the very best available. These components have been selected because of their proven reliability, over all other factors. Yet we have been able to keep our products competitively priced. Even though some of these components cost a little more, we are confident that no other manufacturer offers as much quality and value as Scientek.
Microprocessors don’t have to be complicated to be effective. Our solid state microprocessors are made by one of the world leaders in the field of process control and monitoring. Our systems are designed to hold multiple cycles in memory and include a lithium battery with a low level indicator to protect the program from interruptions in power. All Scientek 6000 series washers include a digital cycle timer, which allows you to modify the timing of any phase of the process cycle. Access to cycle timing is protected by both a key switch and an access code to prevent unauthorized changes. The pro-cessor also includes a data port, which can be used to download cycle information to a printer or a stand alone computer for record keeping purposes. Since the future might hold some additional surprises, we include an access port so that we can totally reprogram the washer’s cycle protocol with the simple installation of a computer memory chip or EEPROM. We would be happy to go over all of these features at the time of machine start up so you can see for yourself that our microprocessor really does help to keep things simple.
We know that it takes more than a good washer to get excellent cleaning results. As every facility manager knows, it takes a well trained crew as well as top quality cage cleaning chemicals to achieve the high standard of disinfection required to meet today’s standards. Scientek can’t train your staff for you, but we will build our washer with chemical injection ports, chemical pumps and conductivity meters to monitor the additive concentrations. If you would rather have your chemical supplier provide the pumps and meters, then we will provide the necessary ports in the sump so that they can add their equipment as required. All Scientek cage and rack washers can be ordered with heated or unheated side tanks to retain and reuse the wash solutions. We also know that adjusting the drain effluent to an acceptable level for temperature and PH is critical in today’s facilities. Our washers can be ordered with effluent cool-down systems and a location to fit a PH probe if required.
Scientek’s well designed accessory equipment will help you get the job done fast. As part of the complete Scientek system we offer a welded stainless steel bottle washing cart with a direct connection to the circulation fluid through our optional “quick-lock” fitting in the washer floor. Our feeder bottle washing cart has an automatic docking flange so that the operator simply pushes the cart into place, shuts the door and selects a switch on the control panel to turn the cage washer into a bottle washer. We also offer a heavy duty multi-purpose rack, which will hold all common sizes of plastic caging and pans. For those facilities where processing capacity is extremely important, we can provide our optional SMR-63 cage washing system. In all Scientek washers with a cabinet width of 48 inches or more, we can add a central rotating spray manifold, which will more than double the cage washing capacity of our washer. If you typically wash seventy-two standard shoe box cages in one load, the SMR-63 system will allow you to process up to one hundred and eighty cages per load. Please check with Scientek for the exact capacity rating using the cages at your facility. You’ll be amazed at the increase in processing capacity you can achieve with the SMR-63 cage washing system. No other manufacturer can offer that amount of washing capacity in a 48” wide machine.
More vapor removal option than any other manufacturer. Scientek offers a number of ventilation systems to remove the heated vapor from within the cabinet at the end of the process cycle. We can connect to the facility’s HVAC system using a simple power operated vent damper. We can add an assist blower to the vent connection if there isn’t enough CFM draw on the current system. Or, if the washer is located in an area where an exhaust duct simply isn’t feasible, we can build our machine with a self-contained closed loop vapor removal system that requires no duct connection whatsoever. We would be pleased to review all of these ventilation options with you or your mechanical consultant, so that together we can find the best system to suit your facility. Since you have the choice of draining or retaining final rinse water to be used in the prewash stage of the next cycle, we have programmed a short exhaust period that can be started from either side of the washer. This will allow the operator to clear the vapor from the cabinet following intervals when the washer has been sitting idle.
Owning a well designed cage washer has benefits that can only be appreciated with the passage of time. Isn’t it true that people forget about the money they saved in purchasing any given product if that product fails them. Taking the time to research the market and being committed to purchasing the best quality that your budget will allow has always been the wisest thing to do. At Scientek we welcome the opportunity to demonstrate how our equipment will benefit your facility in the long run. We also advise that you contact our previous clients for their comments. We would be pleased to provide a complete list of Scientek equipment users on request. All of us at Scientek appreciate your interest and look forward to helping with your next equipment purchase.
Other products available from Scientek:
| Scientek Cage and Rack Washer Cabinet Dimensions | ||
| Model # | Interior Load Capacity | Exterior Cabinet Size |
| SW 6200 | 41” W x 84” H x 80” L 1042mm x 2134mm x 2032mm |
55 1/2” W x 91” H x 84” L 1410mm x 2311mm x 2134mm |
| SW 6300 | 48” W x 88” H x 90” L 1219mm x 2235mm x 2286mm |
62 3/4” W x 95” H x 96” L 1594mm x 2413mm x 2438mm |
| SW 6700 | 48” W x 88” H x 128” L 1219mm x 2235mm x 3251mm |
62 3/4” W x 95” H x 132” L 1594mm x 2413mm x 3353mm |
| SW 6700/W | 68 1/2” W x 88” H x 128” L 1740mm x 2235mm x 3251mm |
83 1/4” W x 95” H x 132” L 2115mm x 2413mm x 3353mm |
| SW 6900 | 48” W x 88” H x 188” L 1219mm x 2235mm x 4775mm |
62 3/4” W x 95” H x 192” L 1594mm x 2413mm x 4877mm |
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