This year, 2012, celebrates the 30th year that Hettich centrifuges have been imported from Tuttlingen in Germany, all the way to Labotec in SA. Tuttlingen town is built around the Honberg mountain where ruins of a castle built in the Middle Ages still stand. Each summer the castle transforms into a famous location for festivals and concerts, amid a strange and beautiful landscape, hilly with fields and patches of forest. Today Tuttlingen has many businesses and fifty percent of the world’s surgical equipment is manufactured in this town. Among these businesses is Hettich Zentrifugen, a company that has stood the test of time for over 100 years. Hettich equipment is highly valued because it lasts, is functionally well designed and sophisticated.
Centrifuges make use of the centrifugal force that acts on mixtures during rotational movement to separate the constituents. A pre-requirement here is a sufficient difference in density between those constituents. Laboratory centrifuges are sedimentation centrifuges and may take the form of benchtop or floor-standing models. They are used in many fields, such as chemistry, physics, pharmacy, biology, biotechnology and, not least, medicine. Their power is needed in industry for production purposes, in research facilities for scientific applications and in medical laboratories for investigation purposes or to derive blood constituents.
Labotec supplies various ranges of centrifuges from Hettich from small, benchtop to floor standing centrifuges. Small centrifuges are lightweight, compact devices which can be transported easily and which require little space. They help save energy when processing low sample quantities and are the solution of choice for medical practices and surgeries. Although their capacity is limited, they can deliver high performance if required.
Benchtop centrifuges are the universal geniuses among laboratory centrifuges. These robust, durable machines can accommodate close to any type or size of centrifugation tube, and can generate the required centrifugal force. They vary in capacity and performance levels and can address a wide range of requirements. Centrifuges with a maximum volume of 4 x 100 ml are considered basic equipment for most laboratories. If however, special scientific challenges need to be met, as in genetics, virology or bacteriology, larger models with more advanced controls are required.
Floorstanding centrifuges are large-volume devices that are used to process large quantities of samples and larger sample tubes in high-throughput environments. They are ideal for use in clinical laboratories, in blood banks and laboratories in the pharmaceutical industry for high-throughput screening.
The range of comprehensive accessories supplied by Hettich also contributes to customer-friendliness. These accessories especially make the centrifuges very adaptable and their operation economical. For information on the full range of Hettich centrifuges available in South Africa, contact Labotec on 011 315 5434, or email athishar@labotec.co.za Labotec also provide full after-sale service and maintenance nationwide.
