When you have a lab, and then make sure that your equipment and all associated facilities are clean and maintained to get all experiments accurately and turn out to be reliable. Most of the science experiments need to get a precise measurement and it is crucial too. Non-maintenance of your facility and equipment leads to the ruin of the whole scientific study. If there is any contamination, then no valid results can be found. It is a significant part of your work to clean and maintain the lab equipment. However, it is vital as the experiments.
Laboratories need to have the ability to provide accurate results quickly. So, it is crucial to keep a lab in a condition that meets these goals. Here are some of the important tips for the maintenance of your lab equipment and facility to ensure that the experiments are correct and reliable too.
Cleanliness
The easiest way to keep your lab clean is to keep all the equipment in the lab clean as well as sanitized at the same time. Shockingly, some labs ignore this important activity but it is significant to wipe down the exterior equipment each day to keep the lab and their equipment in shape. Keep a thorough check on the detailed cleaning at least once a week. Some lab equipment needs to follow a particular procedure for cleaning.
Calibration
Owing to the uncalibrated pipettes, the scientific data may lead to getting some error related to pipettes. Ensure that you calibrated all the equipment as described by the manufacturer. Typically, a typical re-calibration period is one year.
Here is another tip to make sure that this measuring equipment is calibrated. If you fail to do regularly, then it results in the corrupted data and inaccuracies in experiments. Calibration can lie from the basic preventive maintenance to the advanced level of accuracy verification processes. When you stay regular with the equipment’s calibration, then you rarely need any quick preventive measures to back up as well as running.
Repairing
If any of the lab equipment is not working properly or providing the exact result that is required, then it is vital to get the repair or replacement of that piece timely. Most of the lab equipment can be salvaged by repairing or replacing a few parts that are essential components. The earlier you can fix it with the equipment and there are fewer chances to get the full replacement.
Refurbishing
For the majority of the labs, an ideal option is to refurbish the lab equipment for some pieces that are not running up to mark and smooth usage of these are required. The whole process includes getting the part aside and fully cleaning up the components. Once the cleaning process has done, then lubricate them and put back together. During this process, you can notice some parts that require replacement due to signs of wear and may need replacement before reassembling the lab equipment.
A special sticker on Electronics
Some of the tablets are resistant to solvents as well as mild acids. So, it is a better idea to use the screen protectors on tablets used on the lab bench. There is a similarity between the maintenance of electronic devices and the general lab equipment. Dust, heat, and electricity are the three enemies of electronic devices. Dust collects on computer cases, so clean it from time to time by opening. Overheating may lead to damage to the electronics. Keep the places ventilated and keep all the electronics aside. More than sufficient electricity can also kill the devices and the best way is to use surge protectors on sockets.
Tablets and smartphones are safer than other devices to use. These are resistant to dust, water as well as electrical surges since they are only plugged in while charging devices. Some of them are robust and even only resistant to some tough liquids such as ethanol, acetone, or any other acids. Simply, do not drop the tablet.
Quality Replacements
In some of the cases, it has observed that proper maintenance and refurbishment repairs will not be sufficient to get the equipment working as it needs to be. Certain pieces of lab equipment can be replaced at a certain time. During such situations, some labs try to choose the new lab equipment that is less costly and they want to save a few bucks on the previous model. The selection of new lab equipment ought to be done carefully. Top-notch quality of types of equipment may be expensive but it is crucial to make sure that these are durable and will provide accurate results for all experiments.