Sigma Laborzentrifugen GmbH
Global Leaders of Centrifuge Manufacturing

When it comes to laboratory equipment, centrifuges have not seen a great deal of innovation and improvement due to their complex designs. Traditional centrifuges require manual load balancing to avoid imbalance, which can lead to machine damage and an increase in accidents. In addition, they produce and transfer a lot of heat, which can damage delicate samples and affect the accuracy of results.

This emphasizes the need for a more advanced breed of centrifuges to provide ease of use, high performance, reliability, and a high standard of safety in the lab. One of the pioneers in centrifugation, Sigma Laborzentrifugen GmbH is here to spark that change.

Operating in the centrifuge business for over 70 years, Sigma possesses a wealth of experience and expertise in the industry. With its next generation of laboratory centrifuges, it is poised to tackle the limitations of the mainstay centrifuges on the market. Sigma has developed new technologies and products that make scientific research and laboratory work easier, more efficient, and more accurate. It serves a wide range of industries, including biotechnology, life science/medical (IVD), pharmaceutical research and production, environmental analytics, and petroleum analysis.

“It is the power of our innovation that keeps us alive and helps us drive a very successful business,” says Dr. Michael Sander, managing director of Sigma.

Its products are some of the most innovative on the market, designed to overcome the pitfalls of most traditional centrifuges. When it comes to automated centrifuges targeting maximum throughputs of tubes per hour, the otherwise time-consuming balancing can be handled by the automated main system. Innovations for increasing throughput towards completely new levels therefore need to come from other technical advancements.

Sigma addresses this issue with its innovative bucket leveling approach, a mechanism that levels and lifts samples in the centrifuge to a precise interface position in the main robot system, eliminating the need for manual leveling. This automation enables robot-controlled loading and unloading of samples, which can be controlled via an integrated serial interface. The mechanism can efficiently improve process speed and safety, which is a key factor in laboratory environments.

In addition, Sigma’s product line includes refrigerated and non-refrigerated variants to tackle the problem of heat generation. This is significant as centrifuges equipped with a refrigerating system can help control and regulate the temperature of the samples. It also offers heated centrifuges for specific applications, especially for tests in the oil industry, as they are performed at a temperature above 60 degrees Celsius and require temperature stabilization.

When it comes to range of size, Sigma’s centrifuges cover everything, from small centrifuges with a capacity of 0.5 to 2 ml to medium-sized centrifuges with volumes up to 250 or 400 ml. It also includes large centrifuges with a range of 3L to 12L, the largest of which is a floor-standing centrifuge. It is a large instrument with a weight of nearly 500 kilograms and uses a powerful two-stage refrigerating system.

Irrespective of the product, the act of choosing is simple with Sigma. It has designed a unique product configurator that helps customers find the right centrifuge solution by inputting the required features on the portal.

It is the power of our innovation that keeps us alive and helps us drive a very successful business

Apart from its centrifuges, Sigma offers a broad spectrum of rotors and other accessories. These accessories, also known as adapters, are essential and available for nearly all kinds of tubes, offering protection. Sigma is one of the few centrifuge manufacturers that also offers custom adapters for clients. Sigma’s design team makes these adapters for special bottles, tubes, or bags on customer demand. It also offers fixed angle and swing-out rotors made of high-grade aluminum alloy, delivering high durability at a relatively low weight.

For more robust and chemical-resistant applications, particularly in chemistry, biotech, and pharmacy, where buffer solutions are typically used, Sigma offers a clean room coating for buckets and rotors. This coating offers superior chemical and mechanical stability, making it less likely to produce any particles that can be created by friction with other components—an especially useful feature in clean room environments.

All Sigma instruments are tested and certified to a very high level of safety and come with a safety certificate. In line with this, Sigma, along with other members, is supporting the development of a new standard for laboratory devices called the Laboratory and Analytical Device Standard (LADS). It is based on OPCUA and working toward worldwide standardization to combine modules. “This is a very exciting and one of the most important trends in automation, to shift from strictly dedicated systems to ones that can be configured intelligently and with a level of efficiency that supports the economic viability of automation in smaller scale applications,” says Dr. Sander.