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Accelerate Your Research: Centrifuge 5910 Ri

NICOLE SEELIGMÜLLER Lab Academy

Large benchtop centrifuges are often shared by a great number of users, each with different applications and requirements. As a result, rotors, buckets, or adapters have to be exchanged, and parameters have to be reset or checked before each run. With the new Eppendorf Touch-Interface Centrifuge 5910 Ri, these time-consuming and error-prone tasks are finally a thing of the past. It was developed to simplify your daily centrifugation tasks so that you can concentrate on what really matters – your results.

This article appeared first in BioNews, Eppendorf’s customer magazine since 1993.

Centrifugation – more than just “spinning”

You are most likely familiar with this – or similar – situations in the lab: in the course of a series of experiments, many tasks are carried out in parallel, and one challenge is that laboratory equipment such as multipurpose centrifuges must be shared with other colleagues. As a result, the rotor, buckets, or adapters may have to be exchanged and new run parameters set for one’s own vessel types.

Stressful situations as well as inexperience may open the door for inadvertent mistakes when it comes to correctly selecting rpm or rcf, adjusting braking ramps or employing the “at set rpm” function. Errors of this kind often result in the need for repeating the run, and in the worst case, the sample may be lost.

Development focused on the user

During the development of the user interface of the Centrifuge 5910 Ri, attention was paid to extremely simple operation, which has been tested by multiple customer tests. In a final customer test, we also determined the user-friendliness by means of the System Usability Scale (SUS): the final score of 93 is significantly higher than the average SUS score of 68 (https://measuringu.com/sus).

Everyday use is thus as simple as it can be. On the Home screen, the user finds several options to operate the instrument: the unique favorites function, as well as the program function and a user management are the most important ones.

Using the favorites, the four most frequently-used values for the parameters time, speed, and temperature can be saved and selected with a click. A change of the parameters is thus completed within three clicks, which greatly reduces the risk of error.

The program function offers an even faster usage: to create a program, the desired parameters, including settings for braking ramps and “at set rpm”, are selected and saved under the desired program name, for example: “Pelleting of E. coli”. By calling up the program, parameter setting is done in seconds, inadvertent errors are excluded, and good reproducibility of the results is given. Even users who have never worked with the instrument before will be able to operate the interface immediately and intuitively.
Program function of the touch user interface of Centrifuge 5910 Ri

Undefeated versatility

Our test customers were not only impressed by the above-average user-friendliness of the instrument; in addition to its appealing design, many customers remarked on the very quiet operation and the very large selection of 10 different rotors, as well as the unique universal concept for the main swing-bucket rotor. The latter allows centrifugation of conical tubes, plates, and 250 mL bottles without the need for exchanging buckets or adapters. Thus, the Centrifuge 5910 Ri considerably simplifies your daily laboratory routine.

Fit for the future

Last but not least, Centrifuge 5910 Ri supports you on your way to the paperless lab of the future. Documentation of all runs performed, including any parameter changes during the run, can be exported as PDF or CSV file via USB and documented in the eLabJournal® software by Eppendorf, a fully integrated solution for the management of data, samples, and protocols in your laboratory. This way, you can easily optimize your laboratory workflow by documenting and searching research data, tracking sample collections, managing protocols or SOPs, and centralizing the ordering of laboratory supplies.
Management of data, samples, and protocols with eLabJournal
Access to the electronic lab book is webbased, so you can view your data at any time, from any location and any device, using the app. Do you work in a regulated environment? With eLabJournal, your laboratory is able to follow ISO regulatory guidelines and work in compliance with Good Laboratory Practice (GLP). Experiments may be signed and countersigned electronically in accordance with FDA 21 CFR part 11, protecting them from any modification.

Related Documents

  • Magazine | BioNews 55 (July 2021)