Tuesday 8 July 2014

The 'Innovation' part of the Innovation labs

In the labs there is a staggering amount of things that can and have been bought for the sake of convenience or accuracy, test tube racks, eppendorf holders, plastic beakers, glass rods, spatulas, the list goes on.

One thing I'm starting to notice is that the 3D printer we have available to us is getting used more and more often the negate or bypass the need to by new pieces of this type of equipment, as well as improve upon or completely re-design them as well, George and the student team have already made several things on the printer that have helped greatly, things such as the new space saving and interchangeable eppendorf tube racks that allow for people to collect the amount they need as opposed to having a full rack with 2 or 3 samples on it, the chromatography column racks are also a huge help because no only do they allow us to upgrade from the crude method of suspending the columns we used prior to acquiring the newly designed rack, it also helps avoid spilling the dyes we use onto the tables as that stuff is murder to clean.

Today marked the birth of the UTC Minifuge, creates by George with some help from the students Tomaz and Jack, it is a small, portable fully working centrifuge made from things that you could by from any electrical goods shop, the whole frame that contains the inner workings of the machine was designed from the ground up on the 3D printer.

The point I'm trying to make is that in the labs there always is a work around to a problem, whether it be to try a different or new method (something I am frequently reminded of!) or to design a better tool for a job, there is usually a way.

I will add some pictures if some of the 3D printer creations at a later date, bye for now.

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