Setting up a laboratory is a task that has to be performed with perfection. The margin for error in this task is almost zero. Making mistake will lead to various problems. Thus, the process has to be done in the most systematic way.
To accomplish the matter in systematic style, one needs to create a checklist of the things that are required for laboratory setup. No matter what kind of laboratory it should be, there must be some common equipment.
Without these types of equipment, it is not possible to develop a laboratory. In the following section, all the requirements and Laboratory Equipment’s shall be discussed.
Room Requirements for setting up a laboratory
The first and foremost thing is the room where you want to create a laboratory setup. The room can be large or small, as per your requirements.
Large rooms are always preferred for lab setup, though you can get things done with the small sized room as well. The problem with small rooms is that they lack proper ventilation.
Moreover, the lack of space can create some accidents. So, in the case of small rooms, extra cautions have to be attained. The lab room requires the following things:
⇒ There must be a sink to wash chemical and other apparatus. Keeping expensive apparatus without proper washing can lead to damages to those products.
⇒ A well functional bio-safety cabinet is required for storing the materials which should not be contaminated by infectious elements like bacteria, virus etc. by any means.
⇒ Clean clothes are absolutely important to have inside the laboratories. You need to find the clothes that are absolutely neat and clean. They are used for cleaning the equipment and benches etc. Make sure that these clothes are washable as well as reusable.
⇒ If you are planning for setting up a chemical laboratory, you need chemically resistant work surfaces for protecting your lab from damages.
⇒ Electrical wiring has to be done with perfection otherwise major fire hazards can occur. If that happens, you have to face a lot of losses.
Laboratory Safety Equipments
In almost all kinds of laboratories, safety equipment should be installed. You can get two types of safety equipment.
The first type is known as regular safety equipment which can be found at almost in all laboratories.
The second type is known as specialized safety equipment. According to your laboratory, you need to choose the safety equipment.
For example, an electronics lab needs exceptional wiring setup so that delicate electronics items do not get damaged. The chemical lab needs extra protection against fire hazards.
⇒ A fire extinguisher is the most common thing that you would find inside a laboratory. You should have more than one extinguisher, in case if your lab room is big in size.
⇒ Proper waste disposal is required, especially if your lab creates radioactive waste or electronic waste.
⇒ You need to identify the possible hazards or risks in your laboratory. Once the possible risks are identified, you need to fetch or install equipment to neutralize those risk factors.
Overall, the safety of your lab depends on various critical matters. You need to be careful in dealing with these matters.
Basic laboratory equipments that you need to have in the personal laboratory
Having a personal laboratory is a good idea, but for that, you need a good amount of space. If your house has enough space in offering to you, then hosting a laboratory in the house should not be a concern.
If there is a shortage of space, you need to rent a space. In both the cases, you need to ensure your laboratory and its expensive equipment.
The lab is such a place, where accidents may breakthrough anytime, especially when you are not focused on the security aspects.
If you follow standard security norms and have all the major safety equipment in the lab, you can successfully minimize your security hassles to a great extent.
In the following section, we are gonna discuss some of the common equipment that should be placed inside a laboratory.
We shall focus on the most basic equipment. So, irrespective of the type of laboratory you want to build, this common laboratory equipment worksheet will prove to be very useful to you.
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Weighing Machine or Equipment
⇒ In every laboratory, you should have a weighing machine or balancing machine. Now, two types of balances can be found in the marketplace.
⇒ The first type is known as an analog weighing machine. The second type is known as a digital weighing machine.
⇒ You can buy either one, but digital ones are more preferable these days for more accuracy and ease of using. You need to find a weighing machine, as per your requirements.
⇒ In case of a digital machine, you can check measurement data on your preferred units. This is surely a big plus point. Nevertheless, it can measure things in small fractional amounts.
⇒ However, the separate weighing machine has to be bought, if you want to measure the weight of the very tiny things.
Bunsen Burner
⇒ This is the basic equipment that you need to have in your laboratory. A Bunsen Burner has been used for getting the fire with low flame.
⇒ It is a safe way of lighting fire inside the laboratory. It can be used for many reasons. In a chemical laboratory, this is a common apparatus, though it can be found in various other laboratories as well.
⇒ It is simple to use and the advantage is that you can control the flame as per your requirement.
Glass Jars
⇒ Glass made jars are commonly needed to be installed in laboratories. They are simple to be used and very convenient for keeping any chemicals safely.
⇒ Using metallic jar is not suggested, as metallic jar would not give you visibility to the chemicals.
⇒ Moreover, metal can cause reactions with certain chemical substances, especially acidic substances. Thus, it is always safe as well as good to use glass made jars.
⇒ Different kinds of glass jar sets can be found, including beaker, test tube, storage jars, etc. All these glass-made equipment can be easily purchased at the marketplace.
Thermometer
⇒ A thermometer is an important equipment to have inside labs. With this equipment, you can measure the temperature of different substances. Temperature measurement offers safety or security when you are working at the laboratory.
Simple Tips for the Process of Calibrating the Laboratory Equipments
A laboratory is a complex place, where a lot of complicated as well as crucial tasks are performed. To perform these tasks, different apparatus or equipments have been used.
You have to choose the right kind of equipment to complete the laboratory process successfully. If you are keen to conduct these things with perfection, you need to follow certain crucial steps.
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The first and foremost thing is to calibrate the laboratory equipments. You need to calibrate them in a proper way. In this section, we are gonna discuss the importance of calibration of laboratory equipment.
Calibration of laboratory equipment is an important thing. It is a process which has to be done with perfection.
For calibration, you need to focus on a few things. Every equipment is unique and thus the calibration process should be unique for different kinds of devices.
Equipments are needed to be calibrated as per the instructions on their respective manuals. In case if you or the laboratory technician is not confident enough, then he should do the calibration by following the tips that are provided by the experts. Even calling the experts to do the job will actually benefit you perfectly.
Nevertheless, we need to check how the overall calibration process has been done. Understanding the importance is the most crucial thing, as it will matter a lot on the productivity of your laboratory.
Makes the Process Completely Safe
⇒ When instruments are calibrated properly, safety seems to prevail. For maintaining safety, different things are taken into consideration in the lab equipment.
⇒ But, people often forget the importance of doing a calibration of the machinery. As machines stay on state of the art condition, a margin of occurrence of an accident will get reduced significantly.
⇒ Moreover, it will lead to no occurrence of loss of the resource. Due to wrong calibration or setup, machines may consume extra resources or completely harm the samples.
⇒ All these things are considered as completely undesirable in the laboratories. Many samples, which have been considered as rare, are used for the experiment purpose. Thus, you should be careful about this matter.
Reduce Manufacturing Errors
⇒ Due to the wrong performance of the machine or equipment in the laboratories, an output can get erroneous for obvious reason.
⇒ In order to omit error from the output, you need to be careful on a calibration of the equipment in the laboratory.
⇒ Calibration has to be done on regular basis, as much frequently as possible. If calibration has not been done with perfection, you need to go for the support or service from experts in this matter.
Reduce Cost Due to Errors
⇒ Errors are not just daunting, but also costly in the laboratories. Available resources and raw materials have to be used properly in a laboratory setup.
⇒ If you do not use the resources properly, you shall end up making additional expenses. To reduce your expenses, you should always focus on the process of reducing the cost by the process of calibration of the equipment.
That’s all about A brief guide to set up your own Laboratory.
Hi, I’m the Founder and Developer of Paramedics World, a blog truly devoted to Paramedics. I am a Medical Lab Tech, a Web Developer and Bibliophiliac. My greatest hobby is to teach and motivate other peoples to do whatever they wanna do in life.
Thanks for this article.
I would be more happy if you define some of the terms next time. Calibration for instance, it may seem so simple but not the student.
Thank
Sure… Will add a section for the medical terms and their meaning.
Which education we need to have for set up a mini lab? I couldn’t find it on the article.
Thanks.