Micro Pipette is the one of the most important tool for various procedures in a laboratory. The accuracy and precision of pipette decides the quality of test result perform in particular laboratory.
Micro pipette does assist lab technician in handling liquids with precise measurement. It is a superior edition of medicine dropper or pasture pipette or serological pipette & works on the equal principle of making equivalent vacuum for drawing up the liquid. With the purpose to make sure correctness at all times, Micro pipette requires to be calibrated. This process is known as pipette calibration.
Irrespective of brand of pipette or how expensive pipette is, every micro pipette manufacturer recommends checking the calibration atleast every six months if used regularly. Companies which are involved in with drugs or foods are needed this procedure of calibrating quarterly or in every three months. Schools which are conducting chemistry classes can have this process annually other than those who are involved in the forensics and research where scores of testing goes on so that they have to perform this monthly.
How are these pipettes calibrated? It is generally done from gravimetric analysis. Each Micro Pipette goes through testing via provision distilled water into the vessel placed on highly sensitive electronic balance. Each pipette must be capable to discharge the equal volume for getting the needed weight as fix by National Institute of Safety & Standard or NIST. The more costly method to calibrate these pipettes is through the colormetric method in which colored water is used & dispensed. The spectrophotometer is used for measuring the color and weight can be derived on the basis of those readings. Based on result of either of the method, Micro pipette should be recalibrated with tool provided with each pipette by manufacturer to ensure readings are within tolerance range as recommended in ISO-8655 standards.