Miele G 7883, G 7836 manual Manual v. machine-basedreprocessing, Applications, Laboratory machines

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Manual v. machine-based reprocessing

Many laboratories have deliberately cho- sen to wash their laboratory glassware, e.g. beakers, pipettes, volumetrics and flasks, Erlenmeyer flasks, Petri dishes and test tubes, in a machine-based process. One reason for this is to avoid the risk of exposure to hazardous substances. Broken glass from manual cleaning, for instance, can cause serious injuries. Infec- tious and toxic contaminants pose a health hazard. Cleaning agents often contain substances that are highly irritant. Automatic, machine-based processes are also more easily standardised, validated and documented. Because washer-disin- fectors operate as a closed system with programmes that run fully automatically, the potential risk to laboratory personnel can be kept to a minimum. This in turn means that machine preparation provides personnel with maximum protection.

Laboratories use a wide variety of equip- ment made from glass, ceramic ware and plastic for testing and analysis, creating reactions, for isolating or cleaning sub- stances and for taking samples, etc. Following on from this, cleaning and drying are essential. The cleaning process must ensure that equipment, when re-used, is not affected by its previous use. Require- ments vary widely from one laboratory to the next. To establish which machines and accessories, cleaning agents, water quality and cleaning programmes best suit an application, the following aspects need to be considered:

1. Applications

Applications subdivide into general areas (organic, inorganic or physical chemistry, biology, microbiology, hospital, pharma- ceutical, food industry or cosmetic industry laboratories, etc.). The type of application will also be an important factor in deter- mining the type of machine and acces- sories as well as the cleaning process and cleaning agents required.

2. Laboratory machines

Laboratory equipment needs to be classi- fied according to its various components (beakers, conical flasks, measuring flasks and cylinders, pipettes, Petri dishes, test tubes, phials, centrifugal test tubes, etc.), and according to size and volume (1 ml, 500 ml, 1000 ml) and the number of items requiring processing. This information will enable us to quote the right system for your requirements.

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