National Weather Warnings Affirm Need for Certified Power Protection for
All Laboratories Running Sensitive Instrumentation
With national agencies warning and issuing alerts/watches for tornados in the West, South, and Midwest and record temperatures in the East and Northeast – with advisories of more intense Atlantic hurricane season this summer, laboratories nationwide are including supplemental, instrumentation-grade power protection as part of their disaster preparedness plans to protect samples, instrumentation, and data from brownouts and power outages.
Tustin, CA – No region of the United States will be immune from weather-related risks this late spring and summer. Whether the risk is of record-setting temperatures or wildfires in the west, tornados in the south and midwest or a more intense hurricane season in the south and east, laboratories nationwide need to protect their costly instrumentation and valuable data with certified power protection as a significant part of their Laboratory Risk Management Programs. Franek Technologies, Inc., the leader in Category III-3 Laboratory Protection Systems (LPS/UPS), is partnering with these laboratories to provide customized power protection solutions to protect each laboratory’s investment in highly-sensitive instrumentation, thereby ensuring the viability of results and their ability to operate 24/7 regardless of external weather conditions.
Supporting over 1,200 universities, institutions, and laboratories in North America, from local law enforcement to national government laboratories, Franek Technologies’ customized power protection solutions are protecting the integrity of critical DNA, environmental health, and disease control analytical results, as well as over $3 billion in assets worldwide. The systems in high-heat -, hurricane-, and thunderstorm/tornado-prone areas continue to help researchers maximize laboratory performance by allowing researchers to get reliable results around the clock, while minimizing economic hardship in the aftermath of a natural disaster.
There are two categories for weather-related risks: those that are anticipated and those that are completely unexpected. For anticipated risks, such as hurricanes or wildfires, laboratories need to do more than simply shut down and evacuate. Facing long-term outages, laboratory personnel should shut down analyzers, shut down laboratory power systems, and literally unplug all equipment from the walls so that upon start-up, there is no possibility of rebound power surges damaging equipment. Many laboratories assume that post-storm, their local electrical utility and distribution lines will remain intact, which is often not the case, especially when wind, flooding, and lightning are factors. Upon powering back up, an instrumentation-grade LPS power protection system re-generates the electrical power entering sensitive instrumentation into a perfect AC sine wave so that a sub-standard power environment will not cause damage.
For unexpected power loss, such as brownouts or inevitable momentary glitches, laboratories are protected by the installed LPS units with the required battery back-up systems in place to allow test runs to be completed and all instrumentation and peripheral equipment to power-down safely. And, as with the anticipated power loss events, the protected instrumentation will receive smooth conditioned current upon powering back up.
“Every lab running sensitive instrumentation has its own set of weather-related operating risks that need to be considered when creating a laboratory risk management program,” explained Raymond L. Hecker, VP/General Manager, Franek Technologies. “If a significant event, such as a hurricane or record-setting heat wave, affects a laboratory, it’s better to plan an orderly shutdown, if not protected with adequate emergency power system reserves. Most damage to instrumentation systems occur when they are operating beyond the design capacity of the short-term back-up system or without engaging long-term emergency power systems (gen-set), when available. We recommend completely isolating the instrumentation from the power receptacle, to obtain the maximum protection from lightning strike flash-over and downed power lines which cause neutral and ground reversal, which overload power protection and safety devices.”
Franek Technologies, Inc. specializes in providing Laboratory Productivity/Protection Systems (LPS) for analytical, diagnostics, forensic, life-science, pharmaceutical and biotechnology instrumentation systems applications. Its certified uninterruptible battery backup power sources for laboratory and instrumentation applications protect over $3 billion in laboratory assets worldwide. The company’s power engineers have developed LPS/UPS products for over 1,500 instrumentation applications, from more than 100 manufacturers, to meet US Government power requirements. For more information, call (800) 326-6480 or visit
