Avoid the pitfalls! 5 core needs to clarify before lab construction

In today's wave of scientific research and innovation, the laboratory, as a frontier base for knowledge exploration and technological breakthroughs, plays a crucial role in its scientific and rational construction. Laboratory construction is not merely the stacking of hardware facilities, but also a key link in the establishment of a scientific research system. A well-planned laboratory not only provides researchers with an efficient and comfortable working environment, but also facilitates the smooth progress of research work and improves the efficiency of scientific research output. However, laboratory construction is by no means a simple project. From initial planning to final implementation, every detail of laboratory construction can affect the subsequent use effect. If there are any oversights in the early preparation work, it may lead to many problems in the subsequent construction and use. The following will detail the five core needs that must be clarified before laboratory construction, helping you avoid potential "pitfalls" and ensuring that the laboratory construction project proceeds steadily.

I. Precisely Defining Functional Requirements

In the initial stage of laboratory construction, precisely defining functional requirements is the first step in laying a successful foundation. Different types of laboratories, such as chemistry, biology, physics, and medical laboratories, have unique requirements for functional settings due to differences in their research directions and experimental content. If there are deviations in the functional positioning of laboratory construction, subsequent modifications will often require high costs. Taking a chemical laboratory as an example, since various chemical reagents are frequently used, including corrosive substances such as strong acids and strong alkalis, and volatile toxic and harmful gases, the functional design must focus on strengthening corrosion prevention measures, and the ventilation system must also have strong ventilation capabilities. This is a concrete manifestation of the implementation of functional requirements in laboratory construction. Biological laboratories have extremely high cleanliness requirements, especially in experiments involving cell culture and microbiology research. The number of dust particles and microorganisms in the air must be strictly controlled, and a complete pollution control mechanism must be established. These details are the core content of the functional planning of laboratory construction. In electron microscopy laboratories, since precision instruments such as electron microscopes are extremely sensitive to minor changes in the external environment, efforts must be made in terms of anti-magnetism and anti-vibration to ensure that the instruments can operate stably. This is also a key consideration of functional adaptability in laboratory construction.

In order to clearly sort out functional requirements, it is recommended to formulate a detailed requirements list. This is an important task in the early preparation stage of laboratory construction. The list should include various parameters of experimental equipment, such as size, power, and operating conditions. This helps to reasonably plan the placement space of equipment and basic facilities such as power supply, providing a basis for the precise implementation of laboratory construction. At the same time, clarifying the scale of laboratory personnel is necessary to determine the reasonable scale of office areas, experimental operation spaces, and passages, ensuring the convenience and comfort of personnel activities, making the functional layout of laboratory construction more in line with actual needs. In addition, sorting out the experimental workflow is also a key link. By drawing a detailed flowchart, the order of experimental operations and the connection between various links can be visually displayed, thereby further optimizing the functional layout of the laboratory, reducing unnecessary walking distances, improving experimental efficiency, and giving full play to the functional value of laboratory construction.

II. Scientific Spatial Layout Planning

Scientific spatial layout planning is an indispensable core link in laboratory construction, directly determining the efficiency and safety factor of the laboratory. Reasonable spatial layout is the cornerstone of building an efficient laboratory. It directly relates to the smoothness of experimental operations, the efficiency of personnel and material flow, and the overall safety of the laboratory, and is an important measure of the quality of laboratory construction. In terms of functional zoning, the operation area, storage area, office area, and auxiliary area should be clearly defined, and it should be ensured that the various areas do not interfere with each other. This is the basic principle of laboratory construction space planning. For example, the operation area, as the core place for experimental activities, should be further subdivided according to the type of experiment, such as the chemical experiment operation area and the biological experiment operation area. Different types of operation areas should be equipped with corresponding protective facilities and ventilation systems. This is the detailed implementation of the space layout of laboratory construction; the storage area needs to be classified according to the nature of the stored items, such as the general reagent storage area, the dangerous chemical storage area, and the biological sample storage area, respectively adopting corresponding storage conditions and safety measures, reflecting the scientific nature of space utilization in laboratory construction; the office area should maintain a certain distance from the experimental operation area to avoid the noise and odor generated by experimental activities from affecting the office environment; the auxiliary area includes equipment maintenance rooms, cleaning rooms, and power distribution rooms, etc., which should be reasonably distributed according to their functional characteristics to ensure the convenience of equipment maintenance and operation, making the space planning of laboratory construction more practical.

In places with strict environmental requirements, such as biosafety laboratories, adhering to the "three-zone separation" principle (i.e., the clean area, operation area, and analysis area are strictly separated) and the "unidirectional flow" design is particularly important. This is a rigid requirement for special space planning in laboratory construction. Personnel and items should flow along specific routes, entering the operation area from the clean area, then to the analysis area, and finally leaving from a dedicated passage to avoid cross-traffic and minimize the risk of contamination. At the same time, airflow organization should also be carefully designed to ensure that air flows from clean areas to contaminated areas, and exhaust vents should be set in the most dangerous areas to promptly exhaust potentially harmful gases or microorganisms, maintaining the environmental safety inside the laboratory. These are technical details that need to be closely controlled in the space planning of laboratory construction.

III. Reasonable Consideration of Equipment Needs

The rationality of equipment needs directly affects the final effectiveness of laboratory construction and is the material basis for the realization of laboratory functions. Equipment is the core tool for laboratories to carry out scientific research work. Its selection and configuration directly affect the quality and efficiency of experiments, while the equipment planning of laboratory construction determines whether these tools can fully function. When planning equipment needs, it is first necessary to comprehensively sort out the required equipment list. It is not only necessary to include large-scale precision instruments, such as high-performance liquid chromatographs, gene sequencers, and electron microscopes, but also to consider small auxiliary equipment, such as centrifuges, pipettes, and pH meters. This is the basic work of laboratory construction equipment planning. The performance parameters, quality reliability, and adaptability to the overall layout of the laboratory of these equipment should be considered to ensure that the equipment configuration of laboratory construction is coordinated with the overall planning.

Large-scale precision instruments are usually expensive and have extremely demanding requirements for the operating environment. This is a key difficulty in equipment planning in laboratory construction. For example, high-performance liquid chromatographs require a stable power supply to prevent voltage fluctuations from affecting the instrument's detection accuracy. They also have strict requirements for the temperature and humidity of the laboratory. Generally, the temperature needs to be controlled at 20℃ - 25℃, and the humidity needs to be maintained at 40% - 60%. The control of these environmental parameters is the key to equipment guarantee in laboratory construction. Gene sequencers have extremely high requirements for environmental cleanliness and need to be equipped with a special air purification system to prevent dust particles from contaminating the instrument's optical components and affecting sequencing quality. This is also an important content of equipment environment adaptation in laboratory construction. Electron microscopes not only need to be placed on a special shock-absorbing foundation to avoid vibration interference with imaging effects, but also need to be equipped with strict electromagnetic shielding facilities to prevent external electromagnetic signals from interfering with the electron beam. These special requirements need to be implemented in advance in the equipment planning stage of laboratory construction.

Although small auxiliary equipment is small in size, it has a high frequency of use. Its placement should follow the principle of convenient access. This is a detailed manifestation of laboratory construction equipment layout. For example, pipettes can be placed on the experimental table near the commonly used reagents and operation areas, making it easy for experimenters to quickly take and use them during operation; centrifuges need to choose a suitable placement platform according to their capacity and speed to ensure the stability of the equipment during operation. At the same time, it is necessary to consider the impact of the noise generated during use on the surrounding environment. It can be placed in a relatively soundproof area or soundproof measures can be taken to make the equipment layout of laboratory construction more in line with actual operational needs.

Furthermore, the compatibility and scalability of the equipment cannot be ignored. When selecting equipment, the connection and data sharing needs between different devices should be fully considered to ensure that they can work together to form an organic experimental system. This is the core goal of the equipment system planning for laboratory construction. At the same time, in order to adapt to the development and changes of future scientific research work, a certain amount of equipment expansion space should be reserved, so that new equipment can be added or existing equipment can be upgraded and modified as needed, making the equipment configuration of the laboratory construction more forward-looking.

IV. Strict Control of Safety Requirements

Safety requirements are the bottom line for laboratory construction and should never be relaxed. Laboratory safety is paramount, concerning the life and health of laboratory personnel and the normal operation of the laboratory, and the safety planning of laboratory construction is the key to building this defense. Before constructing a laboratory, all types of safety requirements must be comprehensively assessed and met, and the safety concept must be implemented throughout the entire process of laboratory construction.

From the perspective of fire safety, due to the frequent storage of flammable and explosive chemical reagents, gases, and the use of various electrical equipment in the laboratory, the risk of fire is relatively high. Therefore, the laboratory should be equipped with complete fire-fighting facilities, such as automatic fire alarm systems, fire extinguishers, fire hydrants, etc., and ensure that their performance is good and easy to use. This is the basic configuration of fire safety in laboratory construction. At the same time, the evacuation passages should be reasonably planned to ensure that the passages are unobstructed, the evacuation signs are clear and clear, and the emergency exits are easy to identify and open. These are important contents of fire safety planning in laboratory construction. In the selection of building decoration materials, fire-retardant materials, such as fire-resistant gypsum board and fire doors, should be prioritized to reduce the risk of fire spreading during a fire, reflecting the control of safety details in laboratory construction.

For laboratories involving chemical reagents and biological samples, chemical safety and biological safety are equally important, which is a special focus of laboratory construction safety planning. Chemical laboratories need to set up corresponding protective facilities, such as fume hoods, protective gloves, and goggles, according to the nature of the chemical reagents used, to prevent laboratory personnel from contacting toxic and harmful substances. This is the basic guarantee of chemical safety in laboratory construction. At the same time, a complete chemical reagent management system should be established to strictly control the procurement, storage, use, and waste disposal of reagents to ensure the safe use of chemical reagents. This is also an important part of the safety management system in laboratory construction. Biological laboratories need to take corresponding protective measures according to the requirements of biological safety levels (such as BSL-1 to BSL-4), such as negative pressure laboratory design and reasonable configuration of biological safety cabinets, to prevent biological pollution and transmission risks caused by biological sample leakage. These special safety requirements must be fully implemented during the laboratory construction phase.

In addition, necessary emergency facilities, such as emergency showers and eyewashers, should be set up to ensure that laboratory personnel can promptly conduct self-rescue treatment in the event of chemical burns or other emergencies. This is the key to emergency safety protection in laboratory construction. At the same time, a complete emergency plan should be formulated and regularly practiced to improve the ability of laboratory personnel to respond to emergencies and their self-protection awareness, making the laboratory construction safety system more complete.

V. Sufficient Reservation of Development Needs

Sufficient reservation of development needs can make laboratory construction more sustainable and avoid the problem of repeated construction caused by short-term planning. With the rapid development of science and technology and the continuous deepening of scientific research work, the laboratory may need to expand its functions, upgrade equipment, or carry out technological transformation in the future, and the forward-looking planning of laboratory construction can effectively cope with these changes. Therefore, at the beginning of laboratory construction, the future development needs should be fully considered, and sufficient space and flexibility should be reserved. This is a reflection of the long-term value of laboratory construction.

In terms of spatial layout, the modular design concept can be adopted to divide the laboratory into several relatively independent functional modules, and the modules can be combined through flexible partitions or connection methods. This is an innovative idea for spatial development planning in laboratory construction. In this way, when functional adjustments are needed, the modules can be easily rearranged or added or reduced without large-scale demolition and reconstruction of the entire laboratory, reducing the later renovation cost of laboratory construction. For example, movable lightweight partitions can be used as partitions between the experimental area and the office area. When the laboratory needs to expand the experimental space, only part of the partitions needs to be removed to achieve space redistribution, making the space utilization of laboratory construction more flexible.

In terms of infrastructure construction, it is also necessary to reserve a margin for future development. This is an important principle of infrastructure planning for laboratory construction. For example, the power supply system should appropriately increase the power supply capacity according to the power that may be added to the laboratory in the future, and reserve a sufficient number of power sockets, which are reasonably distributed to facilitate the access of new equipment. This is a forward-looking design of power security in laboratory construction. The network communication system should also have a certain degree of forward-looking, using a high-speed and stable network architecture to meet the future needs of big data transmission and remote experimental operations, reflecting the consideration of informatization development in laboratory construction. At the same time, in terms of laboratory height, load, etc., the needs of installing large and heavy equipment in the future should be fully considered to avoid hindering the development of the laboratory due to space limitations, making the basic conditions of laboratory construction more adaptable to long-term development.

Clarifying these 5 core needs before laboratory construction, namely: Precisely positioning functional needs, scientifically planning spatial layout, reasonably considering equipment needs, strictly controlling safety needs, and fully reserving development needs is the key to ensuring the successful implementation of laboratory construction projects. Laboratory construction is a systematic project, and the implementation of each core requirement is related to the final construction quality. Only by being comprehensive, meticulous, and thorough in the preliminary preparation work can various problems in the construction process be effectively avoided, creating a modern laboratory with complete functions, safety, efficiency, and adaptability to future development, allowing the value of laboratory construction to be fully demonstrated, and providing a solid guarantee for the smooth progress of scientific research work. Nanjing Expansion Technology has been focusing on laboratory construction for more than 20 years and is committed to serving you.