Why Freeze Fracture and Freeze Etching?

• Freeze fracture describes the technique of breaking a frozen specimen to reveal internal structures.
• Freeze etching is the sublimation of surface ice under vacuum to reveal details of the fractured face that were originally hidden.

Drosophila larva. Sample preparation and imaging by Andres Käch, Specimen courtesy of the group of Prof. Damian Brunner, Institiute of Molecular Life Sciences, University Zurich, Switzerland. Visible: muscle, villi and cell organelles (e.g. mitochondria)

Why Leica EM ACE900?

The Leica EM ACE900 is a high-end sample preparation system. Perform freeze fracture, freeze etching, and e-beam coating in one instrument.

Use the high resolution carbon/metal mix coatings by e-beam with rotating cryo stage for any TEMand SEM analysis offering flexible shadowing options.

With a load lock for sample and knife transfer and gate valves for each e-beam source, the instrument can always stay under vacuum which ensures fast and clean working conditions.

This instrument is bound to become your centralEM sample processing tool. 

No Boundaries to Research

The Leica EM ACE900 Freeze Fracture System has a redesigned cooling concept, microtome, shielding, e-beams, load locks, and offers a Leica EM VCT500 connection for protection of the sample during the complete cryo SEM working process.

Obtain New Insights

• Biology: membranes, bacteria, cell organelles, proteins
• Industry: cosmetic products, food, drugs
• Material research: emulsions, polymers, boundary layers, nano-structures, liquid crystals

Freeze fracture your samples for TEM (replica technique) or cryo SEM (with Leica EM VCT500 transfer).

High Reproducibility, High Specimen Protection

A perfect combination of automation and manual operation (fracturing) make preparation highly reproducible and flexible.

All relevant parameters are logged.

Large cryo-shields, sample shutter, optimized sample transfer and cryo microtome ensure highest protection of your samples.

No Barrier to Operate - Intuitive and Appealing User Interface

The Leica EM ACE900 makes freeze fracture and freeze etching technology a routine application in your laboratory.

Connectivity

Dock the Leica EM VCT500 vacuum cryo transfer system to your LeicaEM ACE900 system!

A Leica EM VCT500 dock can be directly attached to the Leica EMACE900.

With the Leica EM VCT500 shuttle, specimens can be transferred to and from the instrument under perfect conditions for final examination in the cryo-SEM.

Fast Operation

Process your samples fast with load locks for

• E-beam sources
• Sample holder
• Knife

No need to wait until vacuum is reached.

Environmental Responsibility

Our electron microscopy sample preparation systems not only meet highest technical and ergonomic demands, but are also designed to have minimal environmental impact.

What does this mean for the Leica EM ACE900?

• LN2 consumption during cooling down has been reduced by approx. 87% in comparison to previous instruments.
• LN2 consumption for cryo work per hour has been reduced by approx. 58% in comparison to previous instruments.
• Time for cooling down to operation has been reduced by approx. 33% in comparison to previous instruments.
• Reduced size of the instrument leads to less packaging, shipping and transportation costs.
• Environmental management system DIN EN ISO 14001 has been implemented.

We act responsibly and obtained the DIN EN ISO 14001 certificate for Environmental Management in 2015.