LABORATORY BENCHES – WHAT THEY ARE AND THEIR PURPOSE

The most prominent lab furniture, in any laboratory, is the lab workbench.  It forms the very foundation of all lab work.  Acting as the primary lab furniture in most schools, colleges and research laboratories, Lab Workbenches (or lab tables) are the biggest, heaviest, and most important objects in the room.

Laboratory benches give support to all the experiments you do (except for those you must have done in a fume hood or do not need a table).  They provide a surface to do all your work, have sinks to wash apparatus and dispose of liquids, have utility connections that enable you to perform various experiments, have storage units to store the equipment and more.

USE OF A LAB WORK BENCH
Work benches are versatile pieces of furniture enabling lab users to utilize it in a plethora of ways.

1. They create the surfaces to perform various experiments on.
   1. This is where almost all the work in a lab is done. Unless the experiment is such that it cannot be done on a standard horizontal surface or must be done in safe workspaces like fume hoods.
2. Lab benches also have various attachments on top of them configured to the laboratory’s needs.
   1. For wet labs, a lab workbench will have reagent racks on top of the desk and sinks to wash lab apparatus and dispose of liquids.
3. Lab benches will also have various utility connections.
   1. Like gas, water, and electricity lines built in.
4. Lab benches also often have a lot of storage space underneath the tables.
   1. You can use them to store the equipment and other various items.

Depending upon the need, lab benches (work benches, or tables), can be customized to suit many different needs.

1. Dry lab workbench – In a physics laboratory, you will need lots of open surface area and electrical connections. For this reason, a dry lab work bench is basically flat tables with some storage underneath.
2. Wet lab workbench – Chemistry and biology laboratories need a lot of support space, but not that much table surface area. This is a table in which you can expect working with a lot of liquids.
3. Demo Table – Also called a teachers table OR Instructors Table, is a small single user table (bench), that is handy for the lab instructor to demonstrate some experiment.
4. Assistants Table – This table is rather more like a normal table without any storage or tabletop fixtures.

Laboratory benches are at the very core of every laboratory.  They shape the ergonomics, versatility and look of the workplace.  Therefore, they need to be of the highest quality but also perfectly configured for the specific needs of the laboratory. 

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