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Laboratory set up - equipment list
Hi everyone. I have seen a few discussions here that touched on this topic, but I think the ones that might have been most applicable to me were lost when the server crashed, perhaps. (I tried to access links that were cached, but they were no longer found).
Anyway, I am entering into a new business venture, and am attempting to assemble a list of all of the equipment I would need to develop a few formulations for hair and skin care. It has been a long time since I worked in a lab, and bench work/formulating was never my area of expertise, although I have done some of that. (I was primarily a characterization, polymer structure-property specialist). I will be starting small as I attempt to develop a basic formula, then once we tweak it for our desired properties, some scale-up will be undertaken. This is going to be done in my kitchen for now most likely, so I also need it to be safe, compatible with home power supplies, and safe!
I was hoping you guys could help me put together something that would help me do the work I needed to do. The budget will be fairly reasonable I think, with one criteria being that things be suitably diverse, and preferably new (for warranty’s sake, tech support, reliability).
1. I assume I need an overhead mixer. What type? How strong of a motor? What sort(s) of blades? Best manufacturer?
2. pH meter?
3. Thermocouple?
4. Magnetic stirrer hotplate?
5. Do we need a viscometer? If so, what kind?
6. What kind of glassware?
7. Clean water..? We made our own twice-distilled water in my lab, which is not an option in my home. What should we use?
8. a Balance or scale.
General: Pipettes, weighing boats, kim wipes, safety glasses, bottles or containers for product….
What else in both small and larger scale items… ? I need to prepare and submit a full list, and would rather have it be as comprehensive as possible from the outset.
Thank you for your input, if you have time.
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25 Replies
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1. I assume I need an overhead mixer. What type? How strong of a motor? What sort(s) of blades? Best manufacturer?A) I would get at least 2, possibly 3 overhead mixers…if I could afford it. One for high-torque/low-speed, one for low-torque/high-speed, and one little one for pre-mixes. Caframo makes nice mixers, and some of them have changeable gear ratio’s, so you can use just one mixer for both functions. IKA makes a nice mini-mixer, and their lab mixers aren’t too shabby either.I don’t think you need a homogenizer when you are just starting out - a disperser blade in the high-speed mixer combined with a small enough batch size should be enough. http://www.mixerdirect.com/impellers/high-shear.htmlI’m a big fan of the bow tie coil blades. Among other advantages, it is almost impossible to break a beaker with one when you move the side of the beaker too close to the blade, the way the fixed-blade stirrers can. (No-one needs to comment on how I know that, thank you very much) http://www.amazon.com/Talboys-Bow-Tie-Impeller-Diameter-Stainless/dp/B005CJZJIW/ref=sr_1_4?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1415027957&sr=1-4&keywords=bow+tie+coil 2. pH meter?A) Pretty much any lab quality meter will do - but don’t get the very cheapest no-name brand, either: http://www.amazon.com/Oakton-Economy-Meter-2-00-16-00/dp/B004G8PWPA/ref=sr_1_3?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1415026832&sr=1-3&keywords=ph+meter+digital -
3. Thermocouple?A) I like the Taylors, with an armored probe wire:4. Magnetic stirrer hotplate?A) We have one of these - it’s working well so far: http://www.amazon.com/SCILOGEX-MS-H280-Pro-Circular-top-Temperature-Control/dp/B00B3OC1DG/ref=sr_1_3?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1415027383&sr=1-3&keywords=stirrer+hot+plateAlso, I think a hot-water bath is very useful. It’s possible to approximate one fairly cheaply by using an induction hotplate and a metal pan/pot of water. Saran wrap can keep the steam off your hands and out of your batch. http://www.amazon.com/Burton-6200-1800-Watt-Induction-Cooktop/dp/B0037Z7HQK/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1415028562&sr=1-3&keywords=induction+cooktop5. Do we need a viscometer? If so, what kind?A) EVERYBODY uses Brookfield: http://www.gardco.com/pages/viscosity/vi/dve_viscometer.cfm Getting a used one from Ebay is fine IF you send it to Brookfield to be calibrated before you use it.
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This is another water bath possibility:
Commercial kitchen equipment is always worth looking at when you are setting up a small lab without a big corporate budget behind you. -
6. What kind of glassware?A) Any Boro-silicate lab glassware is fine. Stainless steel kitchen pots are also ok, if you don’t store anything in them – stainless steel beakers are better, because they are a higher grade of steel, but they are much more expensive. If you use kitchen pots, I’ve found that it’s a good idea to passivate them with 10% Citric Acid before you use them for the first time, and then again after any time you clean them with an abrasive.7. Clean water..? We made our own twice-distilled water in my lab, which is not an option in my home. What should we use? De-Ionized water is standard. Tap water can be used if it’s well-filtered, but the ions can cause trouble. http://www.amazon.com/Pure-50gpd-Unit-post-Deionizer/dp/B006OP5500/ref=sr_1_34?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1415030475&sr=1-34&keywords=deionizer 8. a Balance or scale.A) Mettler, Ohaus, Sartorius, are the top three brands - one of these should work unless you plan on making large batches: http://www.amazon.com/Ohaus-PA1502-Analytical-Precision-Readability/dp/B0064I6FA6/ref=sr_1_17?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1415027543&sr=1-17&keywords=balance
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Bob, thank you so much! I look forward to sitting down and looking at all of your recommendations. I may have more questions yet.
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I will point out that most, if not all, of these things are available used on ebay.
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Watch out for Chinese glassware. In my experience it is very thin and breaks easily.
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I would also recommend a small stability oven to do elevated temperature stability. You could use a regular fridge with a freezer to do Freeze/Thaw stability to save $.
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I would add dip slides (from S&M) as well for in house micro testing.
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By the way, using a large microwave oven is a really good and quick way to raise the temperature of a batch of up to say 6 Kg, and microwaves effectively sterilise the container at the same time. Once you know the timing, you simply input how many minutes, and when it switches off, there you go, batch at correct temperature!
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Dispensing pump to package product?
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Taking bob list (thanks, bob, great resume and very useful links) if budget is not big, you can to try ro reduce the cost of the balance buying 2 with not so big measurable intervals instead of one.
I mean:Bob balance example is a good balance and it measure up to 1500 g with a precision of 0,01g and it has a cost of 1300$.You could save a lot of money buying an ohaus balance with same precision that only measure up to 600gr paying only about 250$. Now if you need to measure more than 600gr you can buy another one for bigger weights (this one can be even cheaper). Precision for the second balance will be generally 0,1 instead 0,01 but for measure more than 600gr of a raw material is not significative. -
Bob, what is your opinion on a small UV cabinet to sterilize stirrers and such, and also for sterilizing packaging? I get my packaging from China and don’t want to rely on them being clean enough for my products. Currently I use Everclear (you should see the raised eyebrows at the liquor store…). UV cabinets are fairly cheap on ebay.
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We just use IPA
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Same here. IPA or Ethanol if we’re worried about sterilizing packaging, Alcanox and an ethanol rinse for equipment.
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If you have ever seen the inside of a plastic injection moulding plant you’d have no doubt about the need to clean them!
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I never had to sterilize packaging as I was in R&D. I have use ethanol for sterelize glass and metals (an some laboratory plastic bottles) but not packaging. From in my personal life I know that ethanol affect a lot of different “transparent plastics” and make them cloudy and breakable. IPA solve this?
Is it a common process to sterilize packaging? I mean, that have to be a huge work if you do not have specific sterilization equipment! In that case, some recommendation when manual cleaning is not viable? -
95% of the time, we don’t sterilize packaging for production.
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I have already order a Silverson homogenizer (L5M-A) (10-12 weeks to deliver it…).
Now I am wondering I there is any situation where I will need an overhead stirrer insted the homogenizer.In this moment I only plan to do emulsions and gels (different viscosities from very low to medium viscosity) and maybe (just maybe) some solutions.
Any situation where a overhead stirrer will be needed? Budget is just OK.For example:
- if I need to do a suspension in some gel… in this case maybe homogenizers will reduce to much the particle size for some suspension forms?
- Some type of gels where homogenizer is not recomended because of gel structure…
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Many products are not shear resistant. For example, Carbomer will not react well to high shear mixing after it has been neutralized. In some cases you will need the lower end speed as well as the flexibility in mixing attachments that you would get with an overhead mixer.
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I also want to point out that almost all professional cosmetic chemists design/equip a lab so that the products we make in that lab can easily be scaled up and made in larger batch sizes to be produced commercially. An overhead mixer scales up to several pieces of commonly used large-scale equipment. A Silverson mixer scales up to several other pieces of large-scale equipment. Unfortunately for the budget-conscious, they’re not interchangeable, for the most part.
Having a Silverson, however, usually means that you can limp along by removing the screens and/or with manual stirring or even with an electric drill - for most products - until you can afford to get an overhead stirrer. It doesn’t work the other way - there’s nothing you can do with an overhead stirrer that mimics the action of a Silverson.
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Thanks both!
@Microformulation : true, carbomer was the first raw material I tought about… I never tried but I suppose most structure-dependent materials are affected, Isn´t it? Some guide-line?@bobzchemist : good point. I do not have experience in semisolids scale-up,
Could you please tell us what are those scale-up equipment equivalences:
Overhead stirrer->large-scale equipment pieces
Homogenizer ->large-scale equipment piecesIt would be a valuable resource to have this relation.
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I I have a question to Bobzchemist
using o vitamix as mixer and stirrer would work on small scale project
appreciate a reply
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Simplifying a bit, there are primarily four large-scale mixing methods available for cream/lotion manufacturing in cosmetic chemistry:
Low-shear:
1) Side-sweep/anchor or counter-rotating mixing
http://ancoequipment.com/uploads/3/4/6/6/34662113/_1131470_orig.jpg?250
http://www.ecrecon.com/pictures/21/575/TAN-575%20mixer%20A.JPG Medium -shear
2) Propellor/turbine mixing
http://www.neptunemixers.com/images/dpics.jpg
http://www.meurerresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/mixer2.png
3) Planetary mixing
http://www.cmcmilling.com/equipment-parts/planetary-mixers.html High-shear
4) Rotor/stator mixing
https://chemeview.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/ultramix-4.png It is common to have two or three of these mixers combined in one tank:
http://www.cmcmilling.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Tri-shaft-mixer-1024×1024.png
http://www.mixers.com/Proddetails.asp?ProdID=118Since each of these mixing types act differently on your product, it’s important to know what kind of mixer to use when.
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Wow @Bobzchemist if i would live in your city I would invite you to a drink to thank you your work here in the forum
If one day you come to the south of Spain, you are invited
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