Pipettes are one of the most extensively used tools in laboratories. Laboratory pipettes are designed to transfer or measure small amounts of liquid. There are different types of laboratory pipettes available in the market—from the straightforward serological pipettes to the more complex kind that comes with a plunger, body, and piston.
Different Types of Laboratory Pipettes
Some of the pipettes available in the market nowadays include:
Variable Volume Air Displacement Single Channel Pipettes
This type of pipette is one of the most used instruments in laboratories thanks to their wide volume range and versatility. This type of pipette also has multiple applications.
Multichannel Pipettes
This type of pipettes are typically used in microplate applications like PCR, ELISA, or cell culture. Manual multichannel pipettes also provide instant usability for small scale multichannel work.
Multichannel pipettes come in 8 to 12-channel versions that work with 96-well microplates. There are also 16-channel versions that work with 384-well microplates.
Electronic Pipettes
In applications that require repetitive pipetting, electronic pipettes provide a significant ergonomic advantage. Electronic pipettes are designed to be very versatile laboratory workhorses and they can be programmed to carry out most laboratory tasks.
One of the most prevalent uses of electronic pipettes is the aliquoting of a reagent into several doses. This is also known as multi dispensing.
Serological Pipettes
This type of pipettes are used in tissue and cell culture applications. They are also ideal when more than 1mL volumes will be pipetted. Serological pipettes are either made of polystyrene or glass. However, disposable and plastic pipettes are considered more ideal in applications where sterility is considered a requirement.
Serological pipette fillers are also used to dispense and aspirate liquids accurately. The speed of the dispensing and aspiration can also be adjusted separately so it works with different types of liquids.
Manual Stepper Pipettes
This kind of pipette is considered ideal for tasks that require simple repetitive tasks with a dispensing range of up to 5mL. A bulk reagent dispenser can be a simple and reliable tool that can be used to dispense reagents directly from the reagent bottle.
