Basic Knowledge of Laboratory Design
Release time:
2025-01-23 12:17
Laboratory Design and ConstructionIt is a very complex system engineering project, involving many aspects. Therefore, the design and construction of a laboratory usually invites professional laboratory design units to undertake the design work. However, as laboratory workers, some basic knowledge of laboratory design is still essential to master. Today, I have summarized the basic knowledge of the design of various aspects of the laboratory, hoping to be helpful to you.
Laboratories involve multiple disciplines such as chemistry, physics, microbiology, molecular biology, biosafety, and sensory evaluation. Functionally, they also involve complex process technologies such as water supply, drainage, ventilation, exhaust, strong and weak electricity, air conditioning, fire protection, and waste gas and liquid treatment, while also considering many factors such as environmental protection, safety, and sustainable development. Therefore, it is a complex system engineering.
01 Reasonable Positioning, Scientific Planning
In the process of building a professional laboratory, the 'construction' part is crucial. It includes the positioning and planning of the laboratory, which is the foundation and soul of the entire laboratory construction.
Laboratory positioning refers to: the laboratory's positioning internationally and domestically (what level to achieve); the laboratory's positioning within the industry (system); the laboratory's positioning in society (exercising government functions, general laboratories for third-party testing); and the laboratory's positioning in the geographical area.
Laboratory planning includes two aspects: one is laboratory architectural planning, and the other is laboratory process planning. Laboratory architectural planning includes building appearance, style, height, and layout of the park. Before laboratory construction, it is necessary to investigate the laboratory's needs, which includes the entire laboratory planning process. Therefore, a lot of preliminary research work is required, clarifying one's own needs and future development direction, while also broadly investigating the laboratories that have been built by relevant units to learn from their experiences and lessons.
In addition, it should be fully recognized from a conceptual perspective that the construction of a professional laboratory is a complex system engineering project. It is not just a simple combination of instruments and furniture, but also the construction of the working environment and the working methods created by that environment.
'Construction' should come before 'building'. Only when the 'construction' is clear can the 'building' begin. Construction is the process of concretely realizing abstract ideas using professional means, including laboratory design, installation, debugging, maintenance, and upgrading.
It should be clearly recognized that laboratory buildings serve the construction of laboratories and the conduct of experimental activities. Currently, many designers lack sufficient learning or understanding of relevant laboratory construction standards and specifications, so many laboratories do not fully consider the special requirements of laboratories for buildings during the civil engineering design phase.
The correct laboratory construction process is to first consider the functional positioning of the laboratory, combined with the laboratory's process requirements for architectural design. For conventional laboratory buildings, architectural design can also be carried out according to commonly accepted scales. This requires the construction unit to consult professional institutions with rich experience in laboratory design and construction. The timely involvement of professional institutions during the project architectural design phase will play a good role in the scientific design of laboratory buildings, especially the internal laboratories, and can avoid more issues related to compliance, scientificity, applicability, and practicality. Additionally, if possible, it is best to invite architectural designers to visit other units' laboratories to deepen their understanding, which will help the architectural design better meet the requirements of laboratory construction.
Typical Architectural Design Issues Include:
(1) Failure to conduct an overall floor plan for the laboratory, with overly simple or unreasonable zoning;
(2) Failure to consider the requirements for separating experimental areas from non-experimental areas, such as issues with the location of vertical transportation and the placement of living and office areas not meeting standard requirements;
(3) Failure to design air shafts, or the position, size, and number of air shafts do not meet requirements;
(4) Failure to fully consider the construction requirements of professional laboratories with high ventilation and air conditioning requirements, such as negative pressure biosafety laboratories, PCR laboratories, SPF animal rooms, etc., regarding building height, depth, width, and column grid requirements;
(5) Failure to consider the requirements for special indoor environmental parameters, such as the requirements of constant temperature and humidity laboratories for buildings;
(6) Failure to consider the requirements for the building's breathability, making it unable to adapt to future laboratory renovations or upgrades;
(7) Failure to consider the requirements for instrument layout.
Laboratory Design and Construction UnitsIt is necessary to choose domestic enterprises with rich experience and certain strength, and strictly examine their design, research and development, production, and construction capabilities as well as qualification conditions. It is best to conduct on-site inspections of their completed projects and company locations. The design personnel of the design unit should be professional, comprehensive, experienced, responsible, and have a stable team. The construction unit should preferably have undertaken construction projects in the laboratory's location, making them more familiar with local conditions.
In addition, due to the vast territory of our country and significant differences between the north and south, issues related to ease of construction and subsequent maintenance should be considered. After the design drawings are completed, it is advisable to have a third-party organization and authoritative experts conduct a detailed review to avoid unreasonable designs and major defects. During the construction project, it is required that the other party assign a project manager with practical experience, which is beneficial for progress control, resource allocation, and communication coordination.
04 Design of Laboratory Floor Layout
The floor design of the laboratory is the foundation of laboratory design. It is the key to determining whether the functional settings and functional area layouts of the laboratory are scientifically reasonable and is the premise for determining whether each laboratory complies with legal regulations and standard requirements. Only by making corresponding floor layout planning according to functional zoning and workflow requirements can subsequent professional designs for water, electricity, and ventilation be ensured. Therefore, the floor layout design phase should consider the needs for work and development as detailed as possible, reasonably allocate space, and optimize integration.
In addition to optimizing the layout and designing the placement of instruments and equipment, it is also necessary to fully consider whether the direction of personnel and material flow meets work requirements. For example, to avoid frequent running by experimental personnel, the pre-treatment room should be on the same floor as the instrument room; the gas cylinder room should be as close as possible to instruments like gas chromatographs and gas mass spectrometers on the same floor; the single-layer area should be optimized according to functional needs to avoid excessive or insufficient floor area; usually, each floor should set up auxiliary rooms such as washing rooms and sample rooms to make reasonable use of space and optimize the experimental process.
The laboratory's power distribution system is designed by professional designers based on the specific requirements of experimental instruments and equipment, taking into account multiple factors, and is significantly different from ordinary buildings. This is because the requirements of laboratory instruments and equipment for circuits are quite complex, and it is not as simple as people usually think that it only needs to meet the maximum voltage and maximum power requirements. In fact, many instruments and equipment have special requirements for circuits (such as electrostatic grounding, power failure protection, equipotential bonding, etc.).
The design of the power distribution system should not only consider the current state of instruments and equipment but also take into account the laboratory's development plan for several years. It is essential to fully consider the reserved issues of the power distribution system and future circuit maintenance. To ensure reliable power supply, considerations should also include uninterruptible power supplies or dual-line designs, with the capacity of the uninterruptible power supply meeting actual needs and ensuring a certain expandable range to accommodate future development.
In addition, for certain special areas, such as gas cylinder rooms, explosion-proof electrical components should be used to ensure safety. The sockets on the walls should fully consider the needs; for example, the sample room should reserve sockets for refrigerators, the pre-treatment room should prepare sockets for centrifuges, the entrance should reserve sockets for automatic shoe cover machines, and both sides of the corridor should also consider distributing some sockets.
The laboratory weak current system mainly includes telephone, monitoring, access control, and network systems. A characteristic of the weak current system is that it cannot be changed after being preset, unlike strong current lines that can be modified as needed.
For example, network interfaces should be parallel to wall sockets, with a height just above the laboratory bench for convenient future use. The instrument room should reserve enough network interfaces, avoiding floor sockets and instead reserving sufficiently long cable ends for easy connection to the surface network interface during instrument installation. If the corridor is long, telephone lines can be reserved at the far end for convenience during work. Due to good sound insulation inside and outside the sterile room, intercoms should be preset for communication. The access control system should be set at the main entrance of each laboratory floor or other places where access needs to be controlled. Key facilities and equipment should have communication interfaces reserved for intelligent management as needed.
The design of the laboratory air conditioning system should consider the usage rate of the laboratory. Generally, a flexible usage form is preferred to save energy consumption. Ventilation and air conditioning systems for incompatible environments should not be mixed to avoid cross-contamination or greater hazards such as explosions or combustion due to gas mixing.
The air conditioning system is not only responsible for controlling the temperature and humidity of the laboratory but should also work in conjunction with the laboratory ventilation system to effectively ensure the temperature, humidity, and room pressure differentials, providing a good working environment for personnel and precision instruments. If the entire building where the laboratory is located uses central air conditioning, it must be capable of modular management by area and time to avoid affecting the detection performance of instruments due to the inability to use air conditioning during overtime. The layout of the central air conditioning pipelines should be combined with the design of the laboratory's exhaust and intake ducts to avoid overlapping during construction, which could affect the ceiling height. In extreme weather conditions, it should ensure that areas with high temperature requirements, such as sample rooms, gas cylinder rooms, ultra-low temperature freezer rooms, precision instrument rooms, and uninterruptible power supply rooms, maintain a constant temperature adjustment for 24 hours.
The laboratory is a special environment, and the fire protection requirements are much higher than those of ordinary office buildings. Different fire protection measures should be adopted based on the specific conditions of the laboratory (equipment investment and process characteristics, experimental process requirements, types of stored samples and reagents, characteristics of the laboratory building, etc.) to ensure fire safety. For precision instrument rooms, sterile rooms, power distribution rooms, and uninterruptible power supply rooms, fire protection should not use automatic sprinkler systems but should use gas fire extinguishing systems to avoid damaging instruments or destroying clean environments.
The drainage system's pipes should be resistant to acid and alkali corrosion and the dissolution of organic reagents. PPR or other materials should be used instead of ordinary PVC pipes, and the plan should be determined based on the nature of the wastewater, flow rate, discharge patterns, and outdoor drainage conditions. Due to the complexity of drainage pipes in large laboratories, necessary measures should be taken to avoid pipe blockage and leakage, such as developing good water usage habits, placing filters, setting up water traps, and using 45° angle connections for elbows. Centralized water supply systems are not recommended due to high costs and unstable water quality. To avoid secondary pollution, sensor-type faucets can be used, although they are prone to malfunction. For aesthetic reasons, built-in instant electric water heaters can be used.
Many laboratory equipment operations require various gas supplies. Centralized gas supply is widely used as a design solution, especially in laboratories with high gas consumption and concentration, where the value of centralized gas supply is fully realized. The safety of the gas cylinder room must be ensured, requiring explosion-proof doors, explosion venting windows, gas leak detection alarms, and all electrical circuits to be explosion-proof. Consideration should also be given to lightning protection, anti-static measures, and air conditioning equipment.
The laboratory supply and exhaust ventilation system is one of the largest and most widely impacting systems in the design and construction process of the entire laboratory. The completeness of the supply and exhaust ventilation system directly affects the laboratory environment, the health of experimental personnel, and the operation and maintenance of experimental equipment.
A well-equipped supply and exhaust ventilation system in a laboratory should be a harmonious, safe, and healthy working environment. Issues such as laboratory noise, room air exchange rates, pressure differentials, and toxic gas residues in fume hoods are all worth paying attention to. Additionally, sample rooms and reagent rooms should also consider having supply and exhaust ventilation equipment to prevent odors from samples affecting the environment. A modern laboratory should be designed with a fresh air system; the location of fresh air inlets (including air conditioning supply inlets) should avoid directly blowing cold or hot air onto operators, and care should be taken to avoid lateral interference with the airflow of local exhaust devices such as biosafety cabinets, fume hoods, and exhaust hoods.
The selection of laboratory furniture should first consider fully meeting work needs, mainly involving factors such as countertop material, cabinet structure and material, and color matching. For example, the pre-treatment room should use acid and alkali resistant ceramic board countertops, while the instrument room should use physical and chemical board countertops. The structure of the cabinets is mainly divided into three types: steel-wood, aluminum-wood, and all-steel, and the supports of the laboratory benches can be divided into C-shaped and return shapes, depending on the needs of each unit. The layout, types, and quantities of cabinets in each room should also be fully considered, with appropriate matching of side tables, central tables, tall cabinets, and hanging cabinets to avoid inconvenience in future work. Additionally, some details should also be considered, such as the reasonable configuration of computer workstations to avoid future usage inconveniences.
13 Details of Laboratory Interior Decoration
The ceiling of the laboratory should use a small square grid panel form rather than a large block structure, which facilitates construction and later maintenance. To facilitate inspection and visits, the corridors on both sides or large instrument rooms can use floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall designs, making them more transparent and bright, facilitating management. However, this design does not allow for socket reservations at the wall base, and the stability of the doors is relatively poor, with higher costs. If the laboratory aims to achieve the best visual effect, color matching is also a consideration. Reasonably matched cabinets, countertops, floors, and ceilings will highlight its extraordinary high-end features, leaving a lasting impression on visitors and providing a pleasant experience for users.
Related News