8 ANALYTICAL AND LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
Get connected
With enhanced ergonomics, and being lightweight and affordable, the most recent introductions of plastic quick connect tube fittings are finding their way into an increasing number of mission- critical laboratory and industrial applications, replacing traditional metal quick connects. Riley Phipps reports.
Du fait de leur ergonomie améliorée, de leur légèreté et de leur coût abordable, les raccords pour tubes à installation rapide en plastique apparus récemment sur le marché sont utilisés par un nombre toujours grandissant d’applications critiques en laboratoire et dans l’industrie, remplaçant ainsi les traditionnels raccords rapides en métal. Un article de Riley Phipps.
Mit verbesserter Ergonomie, leichtem Gewicht und erschwinglichem Preis werden die neuesten Einführungen von Schnellverbindungs- Verschraubungen aus Kunststoff in immer mehr betriebsnotwendigen Labor- und Industrieanwendungen verwendet und ersetzen die herkömmlichen Schnellverbindungen aus Metall. Riley Phipps berichtet.
T
oday’s plastic tube connectors provide OEMs with lightweight,
cost-efficient and reliable design options for hundreds of mission- critical uses. No longer just suitable for medical equipment, these application-proven plastic connectors have increasingly been integrated into laboratory instrumentation and industrial equipment, where the need for reliable, critical connections is paramount, and ease of servicing vital to maintain production uptime and throughput.
In many industrial and manufacturing processes, and with laboratory and in-plant test and calibration instrumentation, plastic tube connectors are employed to convey substances that can flow, such as liquids and gases, slurries, powders and masses of small solids.
Plastic connectors are particularly well suited for industrial and laboratory equipment because of their light weight, chemical resistance, non-corrosive properties, flexible composites and configurations, ease of making connections and lower cost compared to traditional metal connectors. Nowhere is this more evident than with plastic quick connect fittings, recognised for their ability to provide quick and easy connections and disconnections of tubing for
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. The MQC Series quick connect, from Value Plastics, provides large, ergonomic buttons that make an audible click on connection, and grips for easy handling, even with gloves.
Fig. 2. The latest plastic quick connect designs can be equipped with intuitively simplistic thumb latch and side latch mechanisms to make for easy handling in laboratory and industrial fluid management applications.
www.scientistlive.com Fig. 2.
servicing equipment, changing consumables and equipment portability.
In the design process of equipment for fluid handling in laboratory or industrial applications, typically only a small percentage of the overall system is subjected to user interface. Tese parts, however, should be well designed to reduce or even eliminate the potential for user fault. Te choice of connection type depends on a variety of factors, including the expected frequency of connection/disconnection, servicing and safety needs, as well as user expertise. With so many factors to take into consideration, choosing the right connector can present significant challenges.
When frequent maintenance and servicing is required on a system, quick connects are preferred over general threaded fittings for fluid control, and can provide a critical advantage to OEMs desiring to improve user interface performance. Tey incorporate design features that prevent spillage and minimise the potential of accidental misconnections or leakage during maintenance and servicing.
Equipment maintenance and repair contribute to overall process downtime. Quick connects help minimise service-related downtime by providing quick and easy access to fluid lines that may need to be disconnected during repair and maintenance processes.
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