The Mattson Garvin slit-to-agar air sampler is a high quality unit from the United States, available in the UK from QM Solutions
This air sampler is a high quality unit from the United States, it works on the following principle.
The design philosophy of the Mattson Garvin slit to agar sampler is based upon drawing air through a 0.152mm slit at 28.3litres /minute and impinging the particles contained therein upon an agar surface 2.5mm below the slit.
The agar is contained in a 140mm culture plate which is rotated by a synchronous drive motor.
The rate of rotation can be varied by the interchangeable drive motors specified at the time of ordering.
After sampling, the plate is incubated and the colonies counted.
This count reflects the number of airborne particles carrying viable organisms.
No dilution or plating steps are required.
Results are expressed as viable particles per unit of air and a time-concentration relationship may be determined if required to identify events which may have increased the bio-burden.
The Mattson Garvin is also very efficient, because of the velocity of the air through the slit it can sample down to particle size well below 1um.
The ISO 14698:1 standard describes the principles and methodology to assess and control bio-contamination; it states: "impaction velocity of air hitting culture media should be high enough to sample down to 1um".
The Mattson Garvin air samplers more than achieve this requirement.
