Talk:Ultracentrifuge

Nuclear purposes
Oct 17, 2002: I wondered if it makes sense to mention the use of ultracentrifuge for nuclear purposes (selection of "heavy uranium") Teun Spaans

Gas centrifuges

 * These Gas centrifuges are ultracentrifuges of very specialized type (also see Zippe-type centrifuge, although here again it looks like 2 articles need to be merged). Unlike continuous-flow ultracentrifuges used in life science research and industry (which generally produce accelerations well under 1E5 gravities), they handle gas (instead of aqueous solutions/suspensions) and produce much higher accelerations (see Talk:Zippe-type_centrifuge.  Lchiarav 06:26, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Preparative ultracentrifuges are by far the most common; this article needs a major cleanup and update
Analytical ultracentrifuges may be of most theoretical importance, but preparative ultracentrifuges by far dominate all of the biological laboratories that I have seen (that is, they dominate to the extent that they have not been marginalized by non-centrifugation technologies). The Sorvall/Kendro and Beckman Coulter web sites do not even have links to analytical ultracentrifuges.

In addition to needing explanation of preparative ultracentrifuges, this article also needs an explanation of principles of centrifugation, and the Vacuum ultracentrifuge article should probably be merged into it, since the finer separations (analytical or preparative) simply will not work without the vacuum technology (due to heating and resulting convection). Hazards of operation also needs an update. Unfortunately, I do not have time to do all of this right now. Lchiarav 06:16, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Merged vacuum centrifugation article as per Lchiarav's suggestion. Added link to Beckman Coulter's product page. Agree that additional work is needed on theory of UC and use in preparative work.RMF 19:18, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

It is clear that the article is about ultracentrifuges commonly used in biology labs. In that case, the max speed (RCF) given (1 million g) is wrong. Most commercial ultracentrifuges used in biology labs are under 100K (g). The 1,000,000g speed (RCF) is often claimed for gas ultracentrifuges and they are not commercially available.Ck.mitra (talk) 03:06, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

balancing
How is balanced established and maintained such that these don't destroy themselves as they spin up? 1 gram at 100,000 Gs = 100 kg. s there some active balancing mechanism or do you just have to set them up very carefully? Also, perhaps relatedly, what quantities of liquids do they take? 78.149.133.18 (talk) 23:38, 8 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm still curious, could someone let me know please 79.75.102.124 (talk) 08:34, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

The shaft is relatively thin and flexible. This reference describes the drive motor: https://books.google.com/books?id=PYQo5l3vsXYC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=optima+ultracentrifuge+flexible+shaft&source=bl&ots=tlWV1oEGpi&sig=-JzI_CHWbCCpzJZa_wRTzAgB7yY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJ9vT-4fTYAhVBTWMKHVbiCy0Q6AEIOzAB#v=onepage&q=optima%20ultracentrifuge%20flexible%20shaft&f=false

Types of centrifuges
"There are two kinds of ultracentrifuges, the preparative and the analytical ultracentrifuge."

Nowhere in the article is the difference explained.

2601:600:C880:34E0:29C7:4378:891D:1A3F (talk) 00:43, 4 October 2022 (UTC)