Ultramicrotomes
There is the choice of four ultramicrotomes to cut semi-thin and ultra-thin sections of resin-embedded biological and materials specimens.

Cryoultramicrotome
The cryoultramicrotome provides the user with capablities of cutting semi-thin and ultra-thin sections of biological or materials specimens at sub-zero temperatures. Biological specimens are unfixed, cryoprotected, and then frozen. Semi-thin or ultra-thin sections are collected for immunolabelling, but some materials specimens are too soft to cut ultra-thin sections. Once frozen, soft specimens are hard enough to section.

High-Pressure Freezer
The high-pressure freezer (HPF) uses high-pressure and liquid nitrogen to rapidly freeze small biological specimens. It can freeze solid tissues or liquid suspensions, the depth of well frozen specimens is up to 200 microns. The specimens are subjected to very high pressure immediately before contact with cryogen to minimise or eliminate ice crystal formation.

Slam Freezer
The slam freezer or metal mirror is best suited to freezing larger biological specimens. It is suitable for whole-organ specimens such as kidney. A well frozen layer will only be 5-10 microns deep dissection to isolate well frozen parts can be difficult once dissected, specimens are suitable for AFS.

Automatic Freeze Substitution Unit
The automatic freeze substitution unit (AFS) gradually replaces ice with a solvent at sub-zero temperatures to maintain antigenicity and/or ultrastructure of biological specimens. An average AFS run takes 7-10 days. Frozen specimens are transferred to the pre-cooled AFS unit solvent or solvent/fixative solutions gradually to replace all water in the specimen that was frozen (acetone or acetone/osmium). The aim is to minimise ion movement and/or to maintain antigenicity.