12 Resolutions for 2012: A Checklist for Lab and Process Professionals

January 3, 2012

The new year has begun. A fresh start. A clean slate. A whole new day. Get started right with this checklist, designed to jog your memory about those items that can be easy to forget.

1)    Take stock of your lab supplies. What are you missing? What needs to be replaced? What has expired?

2)    Check your equipment. It performs best when it is regularly maintained and recalibrated. Are any instruments due to be recalibrated?

3)    When was the last time you cleaned and spinned your pH electrodes? For a fast and easy demonstration, watch the video.

4)    Order or update your safety gloves. If you’re not sure what materials are compatible with the chemicals you work with, check the Safety Glove Chemical Compatibility Database.

5)    Have you signed up for the quarterly Cole-Parmer eNEWs? It is your source for technical articles, tech challenges, special promotions, and more. It’s free. Sign up here.

6)    The bandages and medications in your first aid kit were likely depleted throughout the year. Restock your kit.

7)    Make sure you’re in compliance. Call an Application Specialist to get answers to updated regulatory compliance issues.

8)    Look at the expiration date on your pH buffer solutions. Is it time to replace them?

9)    Are the hazards in your facility properly labeled? Choose signage that clearly advises employees.

10) Examine your water purification cartridges. Swap them out with new cartridges for purer water.

11) Still using glass thermometers containing mercury? Don’t jeopardize your health! Switch them with environmentally-safe, nonhazardous liquid-filled glass thermometers.

12) Scrutinize your pump tubing for any cracks or fissures. Order new or backup tubing to prevent production losses.


Artificial Heart Valve at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago Supported by Cole-Parmer Products

February 3, 2010
B/T pump
Photos: J.B. Spector / Museum of Science + Industry.

Exploring the heart is a compelling venture. For those touring the “YOU! The Experience” exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois, the pumping artificial heart valve fascinates audiences, with its intricacy and functionality, in the exhibit’s Medical Innovations Gallery that is part of the 15,000-square feet of activities, challenges, and artifacts on human health and wellness.

Within the display, called “High-tech Human”, an Ismatec pump (available from Cole-Parmer) sends fluid through Cole-Parmer® tubing into a chamber that houses a bioengineered heart valve. The action of the pump keeps the fluid flowing and causes the valve’s leaflets to open and close. The valve educates guests about the mechanics of this vital organ and, specifically, illustrates the scientific advances achieved in creating a new generation of replacement organs grown in the laboratory.

B/T pump Like the organ it simulates in the display, the Ismatec pump controller is known for its clockwork-like precision and performance. Its versatility enables it to be used in a variety of applications, including laboratory research, pharmaceutical processing, manufacturing, food and beverage processing, life sciences, chemistry, and more. As evidenced in the museum’s exhibit, the Ismatec pump often shows up in unexpected places. 

Cole-Parmer offers the complete product line of these Swiss-engineered pumps, ranging from compact multichannel styles to washdown process pumps to fixed-speed rack-mount pumps. The pumps vary according to flow range, number of channels, and speed. The programmable dispensing pumps excel in continuous pumping or dispensing in five modes. Remote control capabilities make Ismatec pumps ideal for lab automation.

Ismatec drives will accept either peristaltic or gear heads, which offer varying advantages depending on their application. Peristaltic pumping is noncontaminating—with fluid only contacting the tubing—and easy to clean. The gear type is smooth-flowing, and compatible with high system pressure uses. Tubing to complement the Ismatec pumps is also available from Cole-Parmer, in a variety of formulations and sizes to best suit specific applications.

From showcasing the innovative high-tech human heart in an educational exhibit to pumping medicine into vials to processing ingredients for next week’s dinner, the Ismatec pump just keeps flowing. To learn more about the YOU! The Experience exhibit, visit www.msichicago.org. To find out more about choosing an Ismatec pump system for your application, go to http://www.coleparmer.com/5637

See the full article here:http://www.coleparmer.com/techinfo/techinfo.asp?htmlfile=IsmatecPump.htm&ID=1162&referred_id=5618


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