What Accessories are Best for Laboratory Balances?

Your lab is a place for amazing research and discoveries – if your laboratory balance is equipped to do its best work. Sometimes, the environment around you can do more harm than good, or maybe you need a little extra boost. Consider these four accessories to help you get the precise and accurate results you deserve.

Why Might You Need Accessories for Your Lab Balance?

Not everyone needs all these accessories, but they can help improve laboratory processes by a significant margin. Some, like the Anti-Vibration Table, are useful because they prevent the environment around you from sabotaging your weight readings. Others, like the Printer and software are great for keeping thorough records. Finally, calibration weights are just … great to have. These accessories help overcome challenges so you can weigh confidently.

Anti-Vibration Table

Minute vibrations are all around us, and if you have an extra sensitive semi-micro or analytical balance like Adam Equipment’s Solis or Luna, they can impact your weight readings. It will manifest as drifting or jumping, results that never quite settle, or if they do, take a long time. Footsteps, HVAC systems, doors opening and closing and even the construction next door can cause enough vibrations for this effect.

Anti-Vibration Tables like Adam’s AVT are a way to neutralise vibrations so they don’t impact your results. It works via two separately supported frames. On the smaller one, a thick, heavy granite block sits. This is what you would place your balance on, as the block stabilizes it and isn’t conducive to vibrations. The outer frame that surrounds the granite block is essentially a tabletop you can use as a regular work surface without risking the granite block moving.

Printers

If you don’t have a record of it, did it really happen? In the scientific world, inaccurate records can cause a major upset as well as a loss of reputation. Weight readings, as small as they may seem, are no exception. Adam’s AIP Impact Printers connect via RS-232 interface to your lab balances, allowing you to print Good Laboratory Practice-compliant records in real time. Plus, sometimes you just can’t ‘see’ something until it’s written down. Patterns and inconsistencies are much easier to notice, keep track of and test when you know exactly when and how they happened.

Save yourself the struggle of reading your coworker’s sloppy handwriting – invest in a printer for clear and professional weighing receipts.

Software

Print-outs are one thing, now you have a thorough hard copy of your weight readings, but if you want to do anything with the information, software like AdamDU is the way to go. AdamDU is a programme that takes your weight results and performs various methods of statistical analysis on them. It can find the average, the median, the standard deviation of your results – and that’s not even all!

Calibration Weights

Keeping calibration weights close is highly encouraged, even if your balance offers internal calibration. They’re a quick and easy way to ensure that your balance is precise right before the day’s weighing. If the weight reading doesn’t match the value of the test weight, we recommend performing calibration, whether internally or externally, as the next step.

Internal calibration is extremely convenient, because it can be scheduled to be performed overnight and doesn’t require the use of calibration weights. External calibration does, but it’s still a relatively quick and easy process. Typically, the balance will ask for you to choose one weight out of a few different options, so you’ll know which one to order.

Because calibration weights are constructed to be so accurate to their stated weight value, it’s important to treat them with care. Use gloves or tweezers when handling them (the oils from your fingers could slowly corrode the weight), brush them off with a brush if they get lint or dust, avoid dragging them along the pan and keep them somewhere cool and safe.

If you have any questions about finding the best accessories for your laboratory balance, please contact the Scaletec team for help.