autoclave (redirected from Steam sterilizer)

autoclave

Vessel, usually of steel, able to withstand high temperatures and pressures. The chemical industry uses various types of autoclaves in manufacturing dyes and in other chemical reactions requiring high pressures. In bacteriology and medicine, instruments, equipment, supplies, and culture media are sterilized by superheated steam in an autoclave. In 1679 Denis Papin (1647–c. 1712) invented a prototype known as a steam digester; still used in cooking, it is now called a pressure cooker.

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autoclave

1. a strong sealed vessel used for chemical reactions at high pressure

2. an apparatus for sterilizing objects (esp surgical instruments) or for cooking by means of steam under pressure

3. Civil engineering a vessel in which freshly cast concrete or sand-lime bricks are cured very rapidly in high-pressure steam

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autoclave [′ȯd·ō‚klāv]

(engineering)

An airtight vessel for heating and sometimes agitating its contents under high steam pressure; used for industrial processing, sterilizing, and cooking with moist or dry heat at high temperatures.