Chemistry Laboratory Furniture
Specified around the substances you actually use
Chemistry laboratories are the most demanding environment we furnish, and the one where a specification written on price rather than on chemistry tends to show its age soonest. We design, manufacture and install chemistry benching, storage and extraction across the UK, made to order in our own facility in Essex.
Worksurfaces
The worksurface takes the abuse, and specification should be driven by your reagents, at your concentrations, at your frequency of use, rather than by any general ranking of materials.
Phenolic resin panels such as Trespa's Toplab or Fundermax's Max Resistance have become the default for UK chemistry benching, offering a sound balance of chemical resistance, durability and cost, and they are available in grades whose resistance differs meaningfully. Epoxy resin remains the stronger answer where exposure is heavier or more sustained, and is the usual choice for chemical resistant sinks. Melamine faced board has its place in light duty and preparation areas but should not be asked to do work it was never intended for.
We fabricate Trespa in house, so we can advise on where the more resistant grade earns its cost and where it does not; on a large installation the difference between specifying it everywhere and specifying it where it is needed is considerable.
The Advanced Research Centre at the University of Glasgow is the clearest example: 20mm Trespa Toplab on the worktops, 16mm on the shelving, and the same material used again for ventilated storage cabinets and waterproof plinths.
Fume cupboards and extraction
Most chemistry work of any consequence happens inside a fume cupboard, and the choice between ducted and filtered recirculating units shapes a good deal of the wider fitout, since ducted units require a duct route, a discharge point and make-up air to replace what is extracted.
Gary Sprawling, our Managing Director, is accredited with the Institute of Local Exhaust Ventilation Engineers, so the same team can design the extraction, commission it, and carry out the statutory Thorough Examination and Test that COSHH Regulation 9 requires thereafter, at intervals of no more than 14 months.
Chemical storage
Storage is generally specified on capacity and fire resistance, both of which matter; the failure we are called out to most often, however, has a different cause. Cabinets holding chemicals that release corrosive fumes need ventilating properly; where they are not, the fumes attack the cabinet from the inside and a unit expected to last the life of the laboratory instead degrades within a few years. If anything in your inventory off-gasses, tell us at specification stage; it is a straightforward thing to design for and an expensive one to discover at the first inspection.
Sinks, drainage and services
Epoxy resin sinks are the usual specification where chemical resistance is required, whilst stainless steel remains common for bowls and drainers in less aggressive applications. Services need routing to the point of use, and how that is done depends on how settled the layout is; conventional underbench servicing behind wall furniture suits a fixed installation, whereas our FlexModular spine or gantry arrangement suits spaces that will be rearranged.
Benching systems
Our 3R and Cleanline systems both suit chemistry environments and can be specified with any of the worksurface materials above, supported on pedestal units or on steel framework. Cleanline's removable service panelling makes for easier access to plumbing and cabling behind the bench, which in a chemistry laboratory tends to get used more often than anyone anticipates at design stage.
Education and commercial
We furnish chemistry laboratories for both education and commercial clients, and the requirements diverge more than they appear to. Teaching space is specified for durability against a large number of inexperienced users and a stable curriculum, whilst commercial and R&D chemistry is specified around a narrower set of processes that are more likely to change. We are a CLEAPSS member, which is generally the relevant reference point for school science accommodation. The Lordship Science Centre at Writtle University College shows how the teaching side can be handled: large divisible spaces with collapsible curtain walls, so one room becomes several teaching areas without rebuilding the furniture.
