The China Center of Industrial Culture Collection (CICC) was founded in 1953. From its inception, CICC has placed great emphasis on the research and development of strain preservation technology and equipment. In the 1960s, CICC developed its first set of freeze-drying tube preparation systems. After nearly 60 years of technological accumulation, CICC has now formed a comprehensive system for the preparation of microbial strain freeze-drying tubes. This system includes the preparation and packaging of bacterial suspensions, vacuum freeze-drying, neck-drawing of freeze-drying tubes, vacuum sealing of freeze-drying tubes, and vacuum detection of freeze-drying tubes. It provides professional freeze-drying tube preservation equipment and technical support to the community.

In terms of strain preservation equipment, CICC holds independent intellectual property rights for several key preservation devices. In the vacuum sealing stage of freeze-drying tubes, CICC invented the "ampoule tube vacuum sealing device," which received a patent in 2015. After several improvements, the sealing device can now monitor the vacuum level inside the tubes during preparation and can prepare 1-40 freeze-drying tubes simultaneously, with a single operator processing up to 400 tubes per day. CICC independently developed "silicone stoppers for freeze-drying tubes" to replace traditional cotton plugs. These stoppers, used throughout the entire freeze-drying tube processing procedure, are reusable, safer, more convenient, and significantly improve the quality and preparation efficiency of freeze-drying tubes.

During the preparation of freeze-drying tubes, the tubes undergo multiple sudden temperature changes, making ordinary tubes prone to cracking. These cracks are hard to detect with the naked eye, and while they may not be apparent during initial vacuum level checks, they can lead to substandard vacuum levels during later storage, reducing or even eliminating the viability of the strains. To address this issue, CICC selects professional materials for making freeze-drying tubes, ensuring a product qualification rate of over 99% through years of practical testing, thus guaranteeing the high-quality production of CICC’s freeze-dried strains.

The ampoule tube vacuum sealing device, patent number 201420602197.1, was authorized on March 4, 2015.

A new type of middle-through silicone stopper with a built-in filter layer, patent number ZL201621086946.5, was authorized on August 29, 2017.