Owner's manual

30
The swing-bucket rotor A-4-38 can be equipped with round or rectangular buckets. Round buckets and the associated
adapters (see ordering information) are conceived for the centrifugation of Falcons
®
, blood withdrawal systems and other
centrifuging tubes with round bottoms. Rectangular buckets and associated adapters (see ordering information) are
conceived for the centrifugation of glass centrifugation tubes.
Use only the rotor / bucket (round or rectangular) / adapter combinations approved by Eppendorf. Check that all
buckets are fully attached, lubricated lightly and can swing out freely. If you use overlength tubes, it is essential to
carry out a manual swing test with empty tubes! When the rectangular buckets are not completely filled, insert the
adapters so that the bolts of the rotor A-4-38 are symmetrically loaded. Avoid unbalanced loading of the inner
adapter bores, pointing to the rotor nut, since this could cause overshooting of the rectangular buckets.
For mechanical stability, all the places must be fitted with identical buckets. The buckets are sorted by weight. The weight
class is embossed on the side of the bucket: e.g. 90 (the last 2 digits in grams). Opposing buckets must be
of the same weight class. When reordering, please quote the weight class required.
Before inserting the buckets in the grooves, make sure the grooves are clean. Dirty grooves or pegs will prevent the
buckets from swinging out evenly.
The specified max. weight of 400 g imprinted on the rotor is the gross weight rating of a bucket (including adapter, tubes
and contents).
The maximum load (adapter, tubes and contents) of the round bucket is 190 g. The maximum load (adapter, tubes and
contents) of the rectangular bucket is 240 g.
A maximum of 8 x 15 ml Falcons
®
or 8 x 15 ml tubes of Duran
®
glass can be centrifuged in the rotor A-8-17. Prior to the
centrifugation of 15 ml Falcons
®
, please insert the provided plastic adapter into the rotor. Prior to the centrifugation of
tubes of Duran® glass, please insert the round rubber plate into the rotor. Please make certain prior to centrifugation that
such a rubber plate is found under every glass tube. In order to avoid breakage of the tubes when using centrifuge tubes
of glass, polystyrene or similar materials, please observe the limiting data with reference to endurance specified by the
manufacturer.
Only load the rotor symmetrically, so that the rotor and the pivots are evenly loaded during centrifugation. The maximum
load (adapter, tubes and contents) of the rotor A-8-17 is 8 x 38 g. The maximum permissible tube length is 120 mm.
3.5 Swing-bucket rotors
Fig. 4:
Rotor and buckets symmetrically
loaded.
Fig. 5:
Rotor and buckets asymmetrically
loaded. Not permitted, because the
pegs of the buckets are subject to
differing loads.
Fig. 6:
Adapter loaded asymmetrically.
Not permitted, because the
pegs of the bucket are not
uniformly loaded and the
loading of the adapter bores
pointing to the rotor nut could
cause overshooting of the
rectangular buckets.
3 Operation
Operation
3