Laboratory
A laboratory is a place of controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurements are carried out. Laboratories exist in almost every kind of setting including schools, universities, private research institutes, corporate research and testing facilities, government regulatory and forensic investigation centers, medical offices, clinics, hospitals, regional and national reference centers, and sometimes even in personal residences.
Science laboratories can be found as research rooms and learning spaces in schools and universities, industrial, government, or military installations, and even on ships and spacecraft.
Laboratory, Brecon County School for Girls
Despite the basic notion of a laboratory as a confined space for experts, the term laboratory is also increasingly used for workshop spaces such as Living Labs, Fab Labs, or Hackerspaces, where people gather to work on social networks. Issue or develop prototypes, collaboratively or by sharing resources. It is inspired by innovative, new participatory science and innovation approaches and develops according to user-centered design methods and concepts, such as open innovation or user innovation.
Lab Sustainability
Best Practices
Research laboratories that use energy-intensive equipment often have an energy consumption at the level of three up to five times higher for square meters than offices in office buildings.
Laboratory vacuum cleaner
This probably accounts for much of the high-energy consumption of laboratory vacuum cleaners. A good impact is already achieved when working on keeping the opening height low and closing it when idle. One way of improving this may be with automatic systems that close hoods after some set period of nonuse and automatically turn the lights off as well. This way, the airflow can be more regulated and is not held at too high a level unnecessarily.
Freezers
Ult freezers are maintained at -80°C. Such a device can consume as much energy as a single house. Raising the temperature to -70°C uses 40% less energy while most samples are kept safe.
Air-cooled Condensers
Water usage can be minimized by switching to the air-cooled Vigreux column, which takes advantage of the considerable cooling surface, from using water-cooled condensers.
Laboratory electronics
Using ovens is a lot of tools for drying glass, but these installations tend to consume a lot of energy. Their use could be minimized if they operated on timers, which in turn would limit their application during the night and on weekends.
Most contaminants demand energy to be disposed of due to chemical or biological contamination. Normal, on the other hand, requires much less energy or at times is recycled in one way. Not everything produced in a lab comes contaminated. However, there will mostly appear some items, which through processes or actions in the laboratory somehow find themselves in the same heap or waste collection. Sorting, and recycling of uncontaminated waste, therefore saves labs the energy required and prevents wasteful disposal.
Laboratory Safety
Many laboratories are exposed to hazards. Laboratory hazards can include poisons, infectious agents, flammable, explosive, or radioactive materials, moving machinery at extreme temperatures, lasers, strong magnetic fields, or high voltages. Therefore, safety precautions are vitally important. Rules are in place to minimize individual risk, and safety equipment is used to protect laboratory users from injury or to help respond to an emergency.
Recognizing that laboratories are a special form of workplace, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration has developed a standard entitled occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals in laboratories. It is also often known by the generic name of laboratory standard. As indicated within the above standard, A laboratory must have a chemical hygiene plan that details specific hazards based on the location in question and how that laboratory approached those hazards.
The CHP should be reviewed annually. Many schools and businesses employ safety, health, and environmental specialists, such as a chemical hygiene manager, to develop, manage, and evaluate their CHP. Besides, third-party review is also used to provide an objective outside view that offers a fresh look at areas and problems that may be overlooked or overlooked due to habit.
Labware
ERLENMEYER FLASK
Designed to be shaken easily, can be hand-shaken without spilling, is not used for measurement as it is only accurate to 5%, and is often used for titrations. A rubber stopper fits snugly over the opening, the size of the stopper required is indicated by a number below the serial number.
BEAKER
Used to hold various volumes of liquid
Not used to measure volumes as it is only accurate to 5%
Spout fits snugly over the rim of other glasses for easy pouring
Suitable for both centrifugation and testing
Often used in qualitative analysis
CAP BOTTLE
Used to hold small portions of solid and liquid samples
When labeling, if you label the cap, it is easier to read if you write on the cap, but be sure not to separate the cap from the bottle
FLASK GAUGE
Measures a definite volume, indicated by the line etched into the neck
Solutions are easy to mix as they have glass stoppers and are meant to be inverted several times to mix.
Requirements are specified on the bottle. The glass stopper should be left in place during inversion
Don’t fill past the line etched into the neck, observe the meniscus reading.
Advantages of the laboratory centrifuge
This makes its first and most significant advantage in its rapid nature of procedure. Spinning a centrifuge at a rate high enough to accelerate several elements in such a short time that they cannot otherwise be separated by a much longer period if the procedure took on gravities alone. The most frequently available velocities in their product range are between 500 to 20,000 rpm. One of the main reasons why it’s popular in laboratories is its ability to reach these high speeds.
Additionally, one of the leading Benefits of laboratory centrifuges lies in their versatility. These machines can be utilized for a variety of purposes in the laboratory, ranging from separating and concentrating samples, through recovering precipitated solids as well as micellar compounds, to filtration and rinsing. That is the reason why they save effort and time.
It is also important to highlight the safety of these machines. They are fitted with several safety devices to prevent traumatic events and possible leaks of liquids. Infectious, such as when working with biological fluids. This extra mass makes them excellent for processes that require extreme care and precision.