Overhead Stirrers

 

Most reactions and analytical processes taking place in a lab require some form of stirring or agitation. Stirring a heated reaction not only prevents the build-up of hot spots and the possible ‘bumping’ of the solution, but also brings reagents into closer contact, thereby increasing speed of reaction.

A number of different types of automatic lab mixers are available on the market, all of which can be used in the appropriate situation to ensure that a solution is constantly stirred, even when not attended to by a researcher. Magnetic stirrers are a common type of laboratory mixer that use a rotating magnetic field to cause a stirrer bar to rotate within a liquid-containing vessel. These stirrers are ideal for situations in which a relatively small volume of a non-viscous liquid needs to be stirred (up to around 4 L), and for situations in which the reaction must take place in a closed vessel or system. However, if larger volumes of solutions are required to be mixed, or if the solution is particularly viscous, an overhead stirrer is often the ideal choice. Overhead stirrers are used in many applications including creating suspensions, gas intrusion and recirculation. Scilogex manufactures two efficient and carefully controlled digital overhead stirrers for the safe and effective mixing of large volumes of solvent.

 

Digital overhead stirrers offer considerable functionality that would not be available on a standard analog overhead stirrer. For example, both the Scilogex digital lab stirrers allow the user to set the required torque and speed, and observe the true values of the torque and speed on an easy-to-read LCD display. An accurate microprocessor controls stirring speed and guarantees precision in the speeds achieved by the laboratory stirrer, while an anti-spill microprocessor control ensures the slow start up of speed to prevent sample spills.