TRI-COLORDynamic containment testing that extends ASHRAE 110
A hood can pass face velocity and still leak. Tri-Color shows you where.
Laser visualization that makes containment visible in real time, under the conditions people actually work in. Set up in five minutes, results in fifteen, before you bring in tracer gas.
What it is
A fume simulator fills the hood with visible haze. An array of lasers creates a light curtain at the sash plane. Anything that crosses that plane lights up, anywhere along the opening, as it happens.
Tracer gas tells you how much reached one probe at one point with nobody moving. Tri-Color tells you whether, and where, anything is getting out while a person works at the hood, the sash moves, and people walk by.
Lab Manager 2024 Innovative Safety Product of the Year. A published protocol for dynamic containment testing, built on ASHRAE 110’s own large-volume flow visualization test.
Verify first. Then measure.
Most hoods get a face velocity reading and a smoke test once a year. ASHRAE 110’s foreword says that is not enough: “It is important to evaluate the performance of the laboratory hood under dynamic conditions. This performance test method may be modified to evaluate a dynamic challenge.” Walk-bys, doors opening, work at the hood. The standard names them, then adds: “This test method addresses only the dynamic challenge of sash movement.” Tri-Color is the modification the foreword invites.
When no spec calls for SF6
Use Tri-Color for containment verification
No analyzer, no gas, no scheduling contractors, and no greenhouse gas released. Find the problem before you pay for a tracer gas test and watch the hood fail it.
When a spec requires SF6
Run Tri-Color alongside it
Tracer gas gives you a number to put against the specification. Tri-Color tells you where to look when the number is bad, and catches what a single probe cannot.
Side-by-side trial, October 2026
Same hood. Same day. Tri-Color next to SF6 tracer gas.
A pharmaceutical R&D lab asked for both on an 8 ft combination-sash bench hood on VAV. Controls adjusted the exhaust so the hood could be tested at three face velocities.
| Setpoint, feet per minute (fpm) | Tri-Color | SF6 tracer gas, parts per million (ppm) | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 fpm, horizontal openings | Red laser dipping low at the openings | 0.27 ppm peak at center, fail | Tri-Color flagged the area before the tracer test failed there |
| 50 fpm, left vertical open | Clear, sustained loss at left side | 0.12 ppm average, 0.75 ppm peak, fail | Both methods agree |
| 70 fpm, left vertical open | Persistent loss at left side | 0.00 ppm average, 0.00 ppm peak, pass | Tri-Color shows what tracer gas does not |
The tracer test was run per the standard and passed. That is not a fault in the method; it is a limit of it. The probe samples one point with a stationary mannequin. Tri-Color watches the entire sash plane.
Who is using it
John Brown University
[Logo pending permission]
[Logo pending permission]
University
John Brown University
Found a hood failure that face velocity missed and built in-house dynamic testing on a university budget. Presented at CSHEMA 2026.
Commissioning
Idaho State University, College of Pharmacy
New lab commissioned with ASHRAE 110 as-installed testing plus Tri-Color dynamic verification on every hood, as the architect’s spec required.
Hood manufacturers
[Manufacturer name, pending]
Hood makers use Tri-Color to test their own designs before they ship. [One sentence per manufacturer, as permissions arrive.]
What it is for
Commissioning new labs
Prove every hood holds under real use before the scientists move in, and hand over a record anyone can read.
Diagnosing hoods that pass but still smell
The certificate says pass. The researchers get headaches. Tri-Color shows the bypass, the sash edge, the cross-draft.
Baffle and sash optimization
See the effect of each adjustment as you make it. Lower exhaust where containment allows, with evidence.
The kit
The Fume Simulator, which fills the hood with the large-volume haze that ASHRAE 110’s visualization test calls for. Wireless red, green and blue lasers with ball mounts, articulating arms, suction cups, tripod and phone mount. Ships in one case. Set up in five minutes.
[Photo of the shipped case, and the 2 to 3 minute kit walkthrough video]
Entry kit
$5,000
Rapid containment verification. Set up in five minutes, results in fifteen. Does not include the anemometer or the Hazer Pro.
Full kit
$7,995
Everything in the entry kit, plus a hot-wire anemometer for face velocity profiles and the Hazer Pro for ASHRAE 110’s local smoke test. Everything a tester needs for the standard’s flow visualization and face velocity work in one case.
Rentals available through Kanomax. The Tri-Color testing protocol and access to the online course are included with every kit.
Talk to us
Tell us what you are trying to solve. Someone who tests hoods for a living will call you within two business days.
Or call 623-562-0907.