How to Purge the Ossila Glove Box

What type of glove box should you buy? Consider these six factors before you pick.

Working safely within an inert atmosphere glove box requires the care and co-operation of everyone who uses it. For this reason, we recommend outlining a standard operating procedure for your laboratory.

The Ossila Glove Box (or glovebox) uses automatic purging and programmable leak tests making it easy to maintain an inert environment. However, there are a number of steps that you as the glove box user can take to ensure that the inert atmosphere remains intact.

The Ossila Glove Box is designed to be easy to install and maintain, and is suitable for most laboratories. Its small footprint and quick set up also means that it is relatively portable and can be conveniently transferred between labs as required.

Inert atmosphere glove boxes run at an overpressure, so if the leak is small, the glove box may still be able to maintain the integrity of the internal atmosphere. However, during this time, the glove box will use a much larger amount of inert gas than normal as the overpressure in the glove box will result in a flow of gas from the inside of the system to the outside.

If you suspect a leak, the first thing you should do is perform a leak test. Leak tests raise the glove box to an extreme positive or negative pressure and then measure the rate of change of pressure over a period of time.

Scientific glove boxes create a sealed environment for work that involves hazardous materials or samples that react with air. The main chamber of such a glove box is generally filled with an inert gas, usually Nitrogen.

Glove box gloves must be flexible and relatively thin to allow movement within the main chamber. This will be the most vulnerable exposure point to air and moisture as small holes can easily occur here.