Pipetting Ergonomics Protects Users and Improves Results
Pipetting is one of the most common tasks performed in a laboratory on a daily basis. Studies show that more than 40% of lab professionals suffer from pipetting-caused disorders. In addition to causing discomfort to the user, the hand and arm injuries reduce the working ability and thus the accuracy, precision and reliability of the results.
By becoming aware of your personal ergonomic risk factors and eliminating them, you can reduce your risk of repetitive strain injury (RSI) while pipetting.
Proper Liquid Handling Tool Selection
One way to minimize strain is to use proper tools in the lab. As pipettes are among the most frequently used tools, here are some things to look for, when selecting an ergonomic pipette:
- Choose an electronic pipette with electronic tip ejection
- Choose a mechanical pipette with low operating forces especially tip ejection
- The pipette should be comfortable to hold and light weight
- The finger hook should provide proper support to minimize grip force
- The pipette should be suitable for both right- and left-hand use
- Pipette tip ejection should be easy and tip attachment light
- Choose a multichannel pipette to speed up work and minimize repetition
Be Kind to Your Hand
There are significant differences between pipettes when it comes to operating forces. The force required to complete a single pipetting cycle including aspiration, dispense, blow-out and tip ejection is quite modest, but the differences accumulate in repetitive use. Tip ejection is the single most force demanding step during pipetting, therefore an electronically controlled or a very soft tip ejection will save you from a lot of strain in the lab.
When pipetting tasks are repetitive, your exposure to awkward postures and applied forces can increase your risk of injury. To mitigate this risk, it is smart to use an electronic pipette which requires similar amount of pressure as with your laptop keys. Multichannel models reduce repetition as 8 or 12 channels are controlled together and also speeds up your work.
Improve Your Results With Ergonomic Tools
An ergonomic pipette reduces the variation of your results. Light tools do not make you tired as quickly which directly improves your pipetting performance. A fully electronic pipette helps you keep your experiments reproducible even when you need to pipette for long periods in a go.
Pipettes & Tips for your Well-being
At Sartorius we focus on ergonomics, user-friendliness, high accuracy and efficiency, when developing tools for pipetting.
- Our electronic Picus® 2 pipettes reduce strain by featuring extremely light pipetting forces and electronic tip ejection. These are your most ergonomic choices.
- The mechanical Tacta® pipettes are the lightest pipettes available on the market. The soft tip ejection and Optiload feature with spring loaded tip cones enable tip mounting and ejection with a low force, especially on multichannel models.
- Sartorius pipette tips are available in racks that are easy to open with one hand. They are compatible with the Optiload feature for light tip loading and ejection.
