Fluid Handling

These are common accessories purchased with fluid handling systems.

An infusion pump delivers fluids like medications or nutrients in a controlled manner. WPI has a variety of infusion pumps. Most infusion pumps are syringe pumps which hold the fluid in one or more syringes for controlled dispensing. Syringe pumps are more accurate than peristaltic pumps, and they are perfect for injecting small volumes. They are limited by the volume that can be contained in a syringe. We also stock peristaltic pumps that use a set of rollers that pinch down on the tubing to move the fluid, but these are not necessarily infusion pumps. Peristaltic pumps tend to be pulsatile by design, but they are easy to setup and clean, and they offer continuous flow. The volume a peristaltic pump can dispense is determined by the capacity of the fluid reservoir it is drawing from. The peristaltic pump is a good choice for moving large volumes. See “Choosing a Pump for your Fluid Handling Application” for more information.

We offer a variety of microsyringe pumps used for microinjection, microfluidics and other life science research applications. Some of our syringe infusion pumps can make injections in the nanoliter and microliter range.

A peristaltic pump has a series of rollers that rotate around the edge of the pump head. A flexible tubing is threaded around the rollers and pressed up tight next to them, pinching the tubing where it contacts a roller. As the rollers rotate around the head, the fluid in the tubing moves from the input to the output. The rate of head rotation and the size of the tubing determine the volume of fluid that can be pumped. The volume that can be pumped is limited only by the volume of the input source.

With a micropipette/microelectrode puller and a beveler, you can make your own custom microelectrodes for your electrophysiology laboratory and micropipettes for your microinjection applications.

We offer a large array of syringe pumps for all your fluid handling applications, which include syringe infusion pumps, infusion/withdraw pumps and programmable syringe pumps. Aladdin Pumps are programmable syringe pumps. Legato Pumps are the SPLG pumps with a large touch screen color display lets you see all of the pump's operating parameters to ensure proper operation during the experiments. SP Syringe Pumps are micro-processor controlled for applications requiring high metering precision at low, pulse-free rates. All the SP series pumps are accurate to <1% error with a reproducibility rate of ±0.1%. See the SP Syringe Pump Comparison Chart.

Our small vacuum pumps are affordable for any research laboratory.