The primary application of centrifuges in the medical industry is blood testing.

Human health is something that cannot be overlooked. However, if there’s a problem with the blood, a person will fall ill. That’s why blood tests are routine diagnostic procedures in hospitals. The accuracy rate of blood waste detection is as high as 99%. These blood wastes include cholesterol crystals, thrombus bands, lipid plaques, intestinal black toxins, chylomicrons, microorganisms, bacteria or viruses, parasites, and other similar substances. Most of these wastes remain unchanged regardless of fluctuations in temperature or levels of physical activity; as long as they’re present in the patient’s body, they won’t simply disappear on their own.

　　 Centrifuge How the blood sample was separated:

　　First, after the doctor receives the blood collection tubes, they will place them on a rack for vacuum blood collection tubes. Once a sufficient number have been collected, they will be transferred to a centrifuge for centrifugation.

　　The number of samples to be centrifuged must be even, because a single tube cannot be centrifuged. During centrifugation, the centrifuge needs to maintain balance. Although some centrifuges are equipped with automatic balancing systems, it’s still impossible to centrifuge just a single tube—though if the weight difference between tubes isn’t too significant, the centrifuge can still operate normally.

　　In the pharmaceutical industry, due to stricter requirements for production quality and safety, there are extremely high demands on key process equipment—such as centrifuges—used in the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients. In addition to maintaining their inherent separation performance, centrifuges must also comply with relevant regulations and standards specific to the pharmaceutical sector. Pharmaceutical centrifuges need to take into account, from the perspective of meeting the requirements of pharmaceutical production processes, aspects such as materials, structural design, methods of material input and output, safety, labor intensity, control systems, as well as cleaning and sterilization procedures.

　　During centrifugation, the centrifuge generates tremendous centrifugal force. If it becomes unbalanced, accidents may occur.

　　Therefore, when doctors place the test tubes into the centrifuge, they always do so in a symmetrical manner. After the centrifuge is started, its rotation speed gradually increases until it reaches the set speed. Once the preset time has elapsed, the centrifuge will automatically stop. Due to inertia, the centrifuge’s rotational speed will slowly decrease from the set speed rather than coming to a sudden halt at zero.

　　Pharmaceutical centrifuges have stringent cleaning and sterilization requirements when switching batches or product types during production, in order to prevent various sources of contamination and avoid recontamination. Pharmaceutical centrifuges need to focus on advancements and improvements in areas such as automated process control, human-machine isolation operation, easy cleanability, sterilizable and disinfectable structural design, online analysis capabilities, and diverse material separation methods, thereby enhancing their functionality, control performance, and sterility assurance levels.

　　Since centrifuges used in the medical field come into contact with pharmaceuticals and other substances, their surfaces must be smooth, flat, and free of dead corners. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that all sharp edges, corners, and weld seams of the centrifuge are carefully ground during manufacturing to form smoothly transitioned, rounded corners. Given that these centrifuges will be in contact with pharmaceuticals, they must be corrosion-resistant and incapable of undergoing chemical reactions or adsorbing the pharmaceutical substances.

　　After the centrifuge has stopped, the door cannot be opened immediately. You must wait until the centrifuge’s speed has dropped to zero before opening it. Medical centrifuges will prominently display the current rotational speed on the screen.

　　When the speed reaches zero, the door lid will automatically open. At this point, the doctor will remove the centrifuged blood collection tubes, place them on a tube rack, and then send them for inspection of the centrifugation time and relative centrifugal force (RCF). During clinical chemistry analysis, when centrifuging blood samples, the RCF should be (1000–1200) × g, and the centrifugation time should be 5–10 minutes.

　　Temperature-controlled centrifugation: Heat generation during centrifugation can compromise the stability of analytes. Therefore, temperature-controlled centrifuges must be used when centrifuging blood samples for clinical chemistry analysis. Some temperature-sensitive analytes—such as adrenocorticotropic hormone, cyclic adenosine monophosphate, and catecholamines—should be separated at 4°C.

　　For analytes that have no special temperature requirements, the centrifugation temperature should be set between 20°C and 22°C. Temperatures below 15°C can artificially elevate potassium measurements in blood samples. Specimens transported under refrigeration must be centrifuged at the required temperature.

　　Regarding re-centrifugation: It is best to complete the centrifugation of a sample in one go. If re-centrifugation is necessary, it should be performed shortly after the previous centrifugation. Blood samples containing separated substances must never be re-centrifuged.

　　With the advancement of centrifuges, related technologies have also been improved. However, the pharmaceutical machinery industry cannot rest on its laurels; it must continue to move forward. With the support of national policies, centrifuge manufacturers must keep striving to promote the wider application of centrifuges in the pharmaceutical industry.