Help with RCF/RPM on IEC Clinical centrifuge - (Oct/02/2007 )
Hi,
Our lab has a very old IEC (International Equipment Company) Clinical centrifuge. I am unable to find any documentation on it in our lab. Therefore, I do not know how fast it spins. If you have one of these centrifuges in your lab, could you help me out with the RPM or RCFs? I do not see a model number on the centrifuge. The speed dial goes from 1 to 7 and the rotor holds 6 15 ml tubes.
Thanks for your help,
Lisa
They are pretty hard to calibrate without a tachometer or some measure of the RPM, from there RCF is an easy calulation:
RCF = 1.12r (RPM/1000)
where r = radius in millimeters
RPM = revolutions per minute
Just a thought you could use a strobe light (if you can get hold of one) and use that to calulate the rotations per second.
RCF = 1.12r (RPM/1000)
where r = radius in millimeters
RPM = revolutions per minute
Just a thought you could use a strobe light (if you can get hold of one) and use that to calulate the rotations per second.
you can ask a supplier for the tachometer, Not to buy it, just to use it.
I don’t know if you do maintenance to your equipments. It should be done, and (depending of the equipment) it’s not very expensive, when you do so to any one, you can ask the technician to brink the tachometer.
Thanks for your help.
We got a tachometer as suggested and it worked just fine
Lisa