Engineering design of laboratories involves creating efficient and functional spaces for conducting scientific or clinical research and experiments. This includes designing layouts, selecting appropriate equipment and materials, ensuring proper ventilation and safety measures, and optimizing workflow for employees.
Some key considerations in the engineering design of laboratories include:
- Proper zoning and layout to separate different research areas and ensure efficient workflow.
- Selection of appropriate materials and finishes to meet safety and cleanliness requirements.
- Installation of specialized equipment such as fume hoods, biosafety cabinets, and lab benches.
- Implementation of proper ventilation systems to control air quality and minimize contamination.
- Integration of safety measures such as emergency showers, eyewash stations, and fire suppression systems.
Lab layout planning is essential for operational efficiency, and it should focus on fulfilling users' needs, minimizing errors, and improving productivity. Safety and accessibility should be prioritized in every lab layout, along with other factors such as available space, storage needs, workstations, ventilation systems, plumbing, gas, and electrical fixtures.
To design a successful lab layout, you need to understand the lab's function, workflows and processes, critical requirements, and future growth goals. A good design balances form, function, and aesthetics while keeping people safe and maximizing efficiency.
Here are eight tips for a successful lab design:
1. Balancing form with function is crucial. Preplanning with the potential or current users of the lab is critical to determine the requirement needs.
2. Wet and dry labs have different designs and functions. Wet labs are for manipulating liquids, biological matter, and chemicals, while dry labs focus on computational analysis, physics, and engineering.
3. Sizing the available space appropriately to meet user needs is crucial. Failure to effectively size the lab can result in limited lab capacity and functionality, affecting efficiency and productivity.
4. Determine control areas early in the design. A control area is an enclosed space for housing chemicals used within a lab. Two principal codes guide the maximum allowed quantities (MAQs) of chemicals permitted within these confined spaces.
5. Plan for chemical storage if required. Proper storage is crucial to avoid clutter, posing serious health and safety risks. Involve the Environment, Health and Safety (EH&S) in the schematic phase to create a design that meets all codes and safety requirements. If the anticipated chemical quantities for a new facility are unknown, evaluate and determine the best way to balance flexibility for future hazardous material needs with other design factors associated with the construction of control areas.
6. Planning for Fume Hoods: Ducted or ductless fume hoods offer protection against hazardous fumes and vapors. Ducted fume hoods work within the building and remove contaminants from the HVAC system. On the other hand, ductless fume hoods use carbon filters to filter air and release it back into the system.
Choosing the right fume hood has significant implications on the overall lab design. Ducted fume hoods may require adjustments to the existing HVAC system. Therefore, the mechanical engineers and design team must work together to ensure proper lab pressurization and fume hood containment.
Choosing the right blower is also critical for maintaining safety in the laboratory and for proper ventilation. It is an essential component of laboratory design and hood installation.
7. Creating a comprehensive equipment list is crucial in determining the spatial planning, equipment layout, lab benches, power, data, plumbing, and HVAC service requirements. While preparing the list, consider the present and future needs of the laboratory. A flexible lab design will allow for additional utilities and floor space in the future.
8. The cost of building a lab can vary greatly depending on various factors such as the existing infrastructure of the building, the type of work to be done, and the specific requirements for equipment, HVAC systems, electricity, gases, plumbing, chemical treatment, and storage. The costs will vary depending on the type of lab, location, and the specific equipment and processes needed.
So, A good lab design should balance form, function, and aesthetics. It should make the most of the available space to maximize efficiency. The best lab designs should have ergonomically beneficial furniture, proper lighting, and no distractions. Additionally, the design should integrate natural elements and bring the outdoors in.
We can summarize that the clinical laboratory design involves creating a space that is efficient, functional, and safe for conducting medical tests and experiments. This includes considerations such as workflow, equipment placement, ventilation, lighting, and storage.
Here are some key factors to consider in clinical laboratory design:
Layout: The layout of the laboratory should be designed to optimize workflow and minimize the risk of contamination. This includes separating different work areas, such as sample preparation, testing, and analysis. If you have a space that you want to convert to a medical laboratory, you will need to choose the location carefully: 1) Location convenient to patients; 2) Low contamination from adjacent rooms; 3) Access to water and drains for a sink; 4) Access to plumbing for a toilet area for sample collection; 5) Adequate electrical service; 6) Good lighting; and 7) Building it in a space adjacent to a waiting room on the ground floor if it is going to serve patients and in a place that’s easy for them to access.
Equipment: The selection and placement of equipment is crucial in laboratory design. Equipment should be arranged in a way that maximizes efficiency and accessibility, while also ensuring proper ventilation and safety measures. In addition to basic lab furniture like lab benches; medical labs require computer workstations, refrigerated and frozen storage, microscope tables, a washing area including a sink and drying racks, laboratory glassware, drying racks, autoclaves, forced air ovens for drying lab glassware, storage for lab equipment and medical tools, precision balances, centrifuges, mass spectrometers, incubation chambers, chemical reagents and tests, dissection equipment, and a vast assortment of analytical instruments depending on what the lab is going to test for. Storage is one of the most important parts of any medical lab. Medical samples must be kept in biosecure and temperature-controlled conditions.
Safety: Safety is a top priority in laboratory design. This includes proper ventilation systems, emergency exits, eyewash stations, and fire extinguishers. The laboratory should also be designed to minimize the risk of spills and accidents. Because of the risk of cross-contamination, great attention must be paid to maintaining an antiseptic environment. You will need to sterilize your equipment regularly. You will need to have biosafety principles in place and have a plan for disposing of medical waste (such as incineration). An emergency generator should be available to operate essential equipment during power outages. All computer equipment should have battery backups as well, due to the importance of not losing any patient information.
Compliance: Clinical laboratories must adhere to strict regulations and guidelines set forth by organizations such as the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Designing a laboratory that meets these requirements is essential.
For more information on clinical laboratory design, you can refer to the following resources:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides guidelines for designing and operating clinical laboratories: https://www.cdc.gov/labstandards/index.html
The American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) offers resources and guidelines for laboratory design: https://ascls.org/scope-of-practice/
The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) provides standards and guidelines for laboratory design and operation: https://clsi.org/standards/products/quality-management-systems/documents/qms04/
I hope this information is helpful in understanding clinical laboratory design. Let me know if you have any other questions.