Product Manager, Nalgene Labware and Lab Containers
Experimental results are only as good as a lab’s scientists and the tools they use. Those tools often include plastic labware—bottles, carboys, beakers, test tubes, graduated cylinders and so on—selected as a lightweight, shatterproof alternative to borosilicate glass. For superior performance, a plastic labware brand should use only the highest quality plastic resin materials, eliminate unnecessary additives, minimize leachables and extractables, design containers and closures to be leakproof, provide validation support and offer technical assistance.
It’s essential to investigate all those aspects of a plastic labware brand before purchasing. The product features and benefits that characterize trustworthy brands are discussed in detail below.
Lab-quality resin, minimal additives
Resin quality is a clear indicator of how a brand of plastic labware will perform on the benchtop, so look for a brand that makes its products from noncytotoxic plastic resins formulated for laboratory use. The resins should be suitable for pharmaceutical contact as well as food contact. Avoid brands that use cheap, commodity resins. They’re not worth whatever they may save on price.
Quality brands also use resins with minimal additives. Some additives are necessary such as heat stabilizers and antioxidants which make plastic moldable and useful for generating products. But they should be used sparingly in order to minimize the potential for leaching out of the plastic into laboratory solutions. Some additives, such as plasticizers and fillers should be avoided in making labware.
Mold-release agents, which are used to speed up the release of products from molds during manufacturing, can pose additional problems. Such agents can contaminate solutions, affect the chemistry of assays or pull precipitates out of solution. Typically, mold-release agents are either sprayed onto tooling or formulated into resins. Some spray-on agents leave a slimy or greasy residue on labware, requiring lab personnel to wash the items thoroughly before use. If the labware is made from resin whose chemical formulation includes a mold-release agent, washing won’t solve the problem; the agent will continue to ooze out of the plastic over time, contaminating whatever is contained in the labware. So look for a brand that stays clear of resins formulated with mold-release agents and that instead sparingly applies a spray-on agent to tooling only as needed. In addition, look for a brand with low total ash content, which is a measure of inorganic impurities.
Leachables and extractables
Many resin additives, including plasticizers, pigments, lubricants, stabilizers, antioxidants, slip agents and flame retardants, are leachable or extractable under certain conditions. Leachables and extractables are chemicals that migrate from the labware itself into the solutions it holds. In the case of extractables, migration occurs under extreme time/temperature lab-test conditions. With leachables, it happens under the conditions of normal lab use. Even glass labware poses a risk of extractables. In fact, plastics generally contain far lower concentrations of trace-element extractables than glass.
When shopping for labware, choose a brand with a low leachable/extractable profile. This will safeguard your assays and short-term experiments as well as lab solutions stored in containers for an extended period.
Durable and leakproof
Plastic labware’s durability vs. glass is a clear benefit—plastic items don’t shatter when you drop them. But not all plastic labware is leakproof. So when investigating plastic labware suppliers, keep an eye out for brands that address the issue of leaking. For example, the Thermo Scientific™ Nalgene™ closure and bottle system features a guaranteed leakproof design. Molded inside the one-piece linerless closure is a seal ring that fits tightly against the beveled inner edge of the bottle neck. There is no closure liner to wear, crease or cause contamination. In addition, the threads on Nalgene bottles and closures have continuous, straight-shouldered semi-buttress threads, so you’ll never strip them.
Validation support
Labware brands should also provide validation support for their resins, sharing with customers all documentation relating to resin quality and purity. Documentation may show, for example, that the resins are DMF (Drug Master Files) registered by the resin supplier. It may also include the results of toxicity tests relating to biological compatibility. Proof that the resins meet regulatory specifications such as USP Class VI, European Pharmacopoeia monographs, European Union food-contact directives, CONEG, RoHS, California Proposition 65, SARA Title III Sec. 313 and 21 CFR Part 177 should also be readily available to buyers.
To help Nalgene labware customers meet their regulatory requirements, Thermo Fisher Scientific provides detailed validation binders containing compliance data and product specifications. (The binders are provided under customer confidentiality agreement).
Technical Support
If you don’t have a lot of experience with plastic labware, you may not know the strengths and weaknesses of the various resins, including chemical resistance profiles and whether or not specific pieces of labware can be autoclaved. You may need some guidance on choosing the right type of labware for a specific application. For these and other technical questions, you’ll want a labware brand that offers high-quality tech support online and by phone.
Work worry-free
When all is said and done, it pays to stick with a reputable brand like Thermo Scientific Nalgene labware rather than taking a chance on an unknown domestic or international plastic labware supplier. By going with a well-established, high-quality brand that delivers on each of the items discussed above, you’ll be protecting your experimental materials from loss, contamination and damage. Validating your labware will be straightforward, and tech support will be available, should you need it. Read more about the benefits of plastic labware to assist you in your decision-making processes. Having the right tools, from a supplier you trust, will let you work worry-free—and ultimately help you do your best work.
Image: Courtesy Thermo Scientific
Related Products from: Thermo-Fisher-Scientific