Daily Operation; Specimen Freezing - Leica CM1510 Instruction Manual

8.1

Specimen freezing

Fig. 17
Leica CM1510 – Cryostat
8.1.1 Quick-freeze shelf with cover
The cryochamber has a quick-freeze shelf (Fig. 17) for
up to 10 specimen discs.
The supplied cover prevents excessive frost formation
on the quick-freeze shelf as the temperature of the shelf
is always lower than the cryochamber temperature.
The cover should only be removed when the quick-
freeze shelf is used for specimen freezing and replaced
when not used to minimize frost formation, especially
during defrosting.
Specimen freezing
• Cut the specimen to size.
The specimen should be no greater than 2 cm x 2
cm x 2 cm.
• Use a specimen disc at room temperature.
• Apply enough cryocompound to the specimen disc.
• Place the specimen on the disc and orient.
• Remove the cover from the quick-freeze shelf.
• Place the specimen disc with the specimen in one
of the holes of the quick-freeze shelf and freeze the
specimen.
Specimen freezing can be accelerated by ad-
ditionally using a mobile or stationary heat ex-
tractor, which are available as optional ac-
cessories (see Chapter 12. 'Optional acces-
sories').
• Once the specimen is frozen, insert the specimen
disc in the specimen head (see Fig. 18.2) and start
sectioning.

8. Daily operation

17