NEW – read my new cast study of a turnkey £2.5 Million lab design and build for the geosciences sector.
It was produced by IAB Lab, a British specialist Lab Design company.
Installing a lab needs much consideration to be able to ensure that the lab floor plan is right for its purpose and to ensure that it has the capability to meet its daily mandated function.
Locate the different pieces of equipment in the wrong spot and you’ve got a significant problem and it may be a lengthy period of time until finally you can correct the problem.
Selecting the right products and format for any research laboratory will help you to make a significant difference to the longevity of the lab. A quality lab design provider will require a good deal of time to design a science lab, seriously centering on the requirements of the user and the role of the laboratory, be it an educational lab, a research lab, a clinical lab or an commercial laboratory.
Similar to all venture an ability to effectively work together with others, for instance building contractors and vendors is crucial, then the firm will be outstanding in communicating and prompting the right questions related to the design.
Studies on Lab Layout
Some companies spend a phenomenal amount of money looking into design but even without a sizeable research spending plan however, setting up the structure of your lab into a very good working setting for personnel is extremely important.
Needless to say there are a large range of factors for designers to ponder, determined by the sophistication of the applications necessary.
Vitally important is health and safety and if you think of health and safety in lab designing, you will probably think about hazardous toxins, of fumes, using gas, heat and so on and these are immensely important, with fume cupboards, eye wash points, heat detectors and personal protection devices. Then other factors such as where employees will be sitting, bench heights and computer/equipment positioning.
Bear In mind, an analyst, scientific researcher, lecturer or student might be undertaking a few separate things, so posture, sitting areas, admission, heights of worktops, setting of stools and chairs, sinks, fume cupboards, prevention of trip hazards will also be just as important factors to think about. Other safety points involve storing of hazardous chemicals, positioning of fire safety equipment, and fire escapes.
Specialised Labs
For certain laboratories, for example academic labs in educational facilities, there are typical approaches to the designing of a laboratory.
For instance designers will measure the number of science lessons given and numbers of lecturers teaching science classes considering a forecast of numbers of tutorials to be given in the long term, to discover the number of laboratories recommended, and the layout of preparation and storing spaces, which also need to be planned out in educational laboratory design as an important part of the entire requirements of a science department.
Other factors involve locations to keep or hang apparel and cases, shut down points for the services and secure, ventilated chemical stores. Knee spaces when students are sitting down and spacing amongst benches is not always ample enough.
Consider different furniture possibilities to help with this and think about the potential future requirements of your business. Is it better to have free standing or fixed furniture? Not everything needs to be fixed down, you can get free standing furniture.
This is good for two good reasons.
First is that moving furniture on rollers means you can easily wash flooring that you wouldn’t be able to access to and, you can easily modify layouts to some extents should you need to in the future.
A free standing stainless steel worktop table system for instance is helpful if walls can not support a cantilever system, although you are able to use movable free standing units and compartments which is a good idea should your staffing requirements alter.
Laboratory Work Surfaces
Picking a resilient work surface is important. Based on exactly what your laboratory does, one size won’t suit all, so if you’re working with dangerous corrosive chemical substances, you’ll need to guarantee your lab worktop will withstand any chemical or material you might likely work with.
There are perhaps unsurprisingly a great choice of work surfaces to suit, including:
- Trespa
- Corian
- Epoxy
- Wood
- Steel
Another large element of designing a laboratory is accessibility to services, there are conventional methods where points to power and gas are secured to the worktop, but there are other options worth exploring – what would be most beneficial to research application. A reinforced service gantry perhaps.
These are a handful of the points that need to be considered when evaluating designing a laboratory, there is an almost seemingly infinite number of aspects to be thought of from floor and wall coverings to lighting, but with the right lab design and build contractors.
Designing for an Overhaul
Laboratory refurbishment is a very successful strategy of ensuring you’ve got an up-to-date lab. Refurbishments can be merely swapping out filing cabinet doors and worktops, and yet it could also consist of:
- Altering the layout of the laboratory.
- Introducing new dividing and entrances or, making areas more open plan by eliminating partitions.
- Introducing extra service points, or moving existing ones (to an overheard service gantry perhaps)
- Modernizing equipment or storage space.
There are two main advantages of refurbishing a laboratory as opposed to installing a new one from scratch. The first is cost savings, clearly this could be significant based on what refurbishments you’re executing.
If equipment is fine as well as the layout then replacement lab doors and work surfaces are a very good way to inject a new lease of life into your laboratory, particularly if the integrity of the framework has lots of life remaining in it.
There may be simple improvements that perhaps need to be made. There might be health and safety challenges that have cropped up, like insufficient knee space for scientists when they’re sitting. Operating in that environment can actually emphasize exactly what works well and what doesn’t.
Becoming conscious of the requirements of the company and the staff members and being aware of changes inside the industry means you are able to adopt the right advancements to the lab. Therefore operating in combination with a very good lab restoration organization means exceptional affordability, and you’ll not only better your environment, they’ll help you improve it by supplying you other possibilities and suggestions to further enhance your lab.
Specialised refurbishment companies that deal specifically with overhauling laboratories will go through each step of the way to ensure your lab meets your specifications.
With designers able to provide computer drawn designs of the new laboratory layout, it’s a helpful service which provides clients a really realistic visualisation of how their refurbished laboratory will turn out.
For refurbishments, it is also recommended you work with a specialist laboratory renovation company who are properly insured to make sure you will be protected in the improbable event that something goes wrong.
Other things to think about when looking for a company are whether employees and contractors are appropriately trained using the relevant bodies. Are they CSCS approved, or are the contractors SMSTS trained? Do they have the proper experience in your industry?
Laboratory design is one of the most complicated areas of building design, so it is extremely important to ensure you choose the right companies to work on your project.