Pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies, as well as hospitals, blood banks, diagnostics labs, and even food & beverage companies, have significant use for centrifugation of samples performed using a centrifuge. Simply put, a centrifuge is a machine with a rapidly rotating container that applies centrifugal force to its contents.

It is an indispensable piece of equipment because it can separate mixtures with relative densities, insoluble particles, immiscible liquids, sediment suspended solids, and blood. It can even simulate different types of gravity for astronaut training.

Centrifuges operate by placing an object in rotation around a fixed axis and applying an accelerative force perpendicular to the spin axis. The amount of accelerative force applied to a sample in a centrifuge is defined as the relative centrifugal force (RCF), or g-force. RCF is measured as multiple’s of Earth’s gravitational field (g).

There are three main types of centrifuges designed for various applications:

• Industrial-scale centrifuges: Commonly used in manufacturing and waste processing to sediment suspended solids or separate immiscible liquids.
• High-speed centrifuges and ultracentrifuges: Capable of providing very high accelerations can separate fine particles down to the nano-scale, as well as molecules of different masses.
• Gas centrifuges: Specifically used for isotope separation.

While centrifuges are considered a ubiquitous piece of laboratory equipment, you may still have questions about which model will fit your needs best. There are important considerations to make, and they mostly involve centrifugation speed, configuration flexibility, available lab space, and ease of use.

Read on to learn more about these considerations and the types of centrifugation and centrifuges most commonly used in clinical and research laboratories.