Resources for Innovators - A Supplier Expo and Pitch Event (Boston, MA)
Eppendorf
Innovation is integral to Eppendorf. Our Company Mission is to be a synonym for custom-specific processes, innovative technologies, and high quality products and services contributing to the improvement of people's living conditions.
Eppendorf has a long history of innovation starting with the launch of the first piston stroke pipette in 1961 to the Microliter centrifuge and consumables in 1962 to the development of the first gradient Thermal Cycler in 1997. This tradition continues today throughout many facets of the company.
In 2015 Eppendorf’s liquid handling portfolio was recognized for its innovation by Frost and Sullivan who awarded Eppendorf with the 2015 North American New Product Innovation Award for Liquid Handling. Today Eppendorf continues to offer scientists innovation in liquid handling in terms of ease of use and ergonomics with the spring loaded nose cone for lower tip attachment and ejection forces.
Not many innovations set standards and revolutionize application processes, but the Eppendorf tube, also known as the “Eppi”, can certainly claim to be one of them.
The first Eppendorf tube appeared on the market in 1963 and quickly gained popularity in bioscience laboratories. Eppis allowed laboratory workers to fill and store small sample amounts easily and practically. They were also useful for multiple experiments, because they reduced the total amount of sample material needed. The development of vaccines and new medications would be unthinkable today without the Eppi and its specific material properties.
The impetus for developing the tube was the 1961 invention of the piston pipette, which enabled the precise manual measurement of liquids in milliliters. Since at the time there were no devices that could process these samples further, Eppendorf invented the microliter system, consisting of mixers, centrifuges and Eppendorf tubes. To this day, these products remain the core not just of laboratory work, but also Eppendorf’s product portfolio.
By 1966, Eppendorf had sold more than one million tubes, and just five years later the ten-million mark was passed. Over a billion Eppis have been manufactured since the Eppi was invented, and today the Eppendorf Safe-Lock tube sets the standard worldwide for simple, safe sample processing in the microliter area.
The average laboratory uses hundreds of them every week, ensuring the Eppi an uncontested ranking as one of the most important consumable items in the lab – as well as being one of the most well-known products associated with the Eppendorf name. Eppendorf continued to develop innovative plastic tubes with the launch of the 5mL tube in 2013, which bridges the gap between the 2mL tube and 15mL conical tube.
Most recently, Eppendorf developed a new line of cell culture consumables with the intention to improve the scientist’s results and workflow. Eppendorf asked how can we make our customers’ work processes simpler, more secure, quicker and more reproducible as well as how can we make work more enjoyable for users? We wanted to understand the objectives and methods of users. We met scientists in hundreds of cell culture laboratories worldwide and analyzed their work processes. We studied their work practices and their preferences in the daily use of traditional cell culture dishes, flasks and plates.
The results of this joint effort led to cell culture plates with optimized microscopical performance due to enhanced planarity, reduction of meniscus and high clarity of the material. Plates and dishes with unsurpassed safety handling with the grip ring. Flasks with ConvexAccess™ neck geometry for significantly facilitated entry and high efficiency air filter technology for improved contamination protection. Complete chimney-well design in all plates levels out temperature changes, minimizes “edge effects” and prevents cross contamination during pipetting for more reproducible results. Easy and fast well identification by contrast rich individual well ID and the OptiTrack® alphanumeric labeling in plates.
Today Eppendorf continues to utilize innovative manufacturing processes to avoid the use of leachables and extractables in our plastics so that the scientist can be confident in accurate results. This program and commitment to providing the highest quality and purest plasticware transcends multiple product groups from tubes to tips to cell culture consumables to single use vessels for bioprocess.
To further support product innovation for our customers, Eppendorf has a Customized Solutions Department which specializes in the development of products to meet specific customer needs as well as OEM products.
In addition to innovative products, Eppendorf continually works to create innovative programs for our customers which address customer concerns. One program is sustainability. For us, that means striving for the shortest distance, the most sparing consumption of resources, the solution that produces the least waste, and the sensible reuse and recycling of materials – but also the careful use of every form of energy, whether electrical power, oil, gas, or the human energy of our employees, customers and suppliers. Wherever possible, the systematic use and promotion of environmentally friendly manufacturing processes is an integral part of our research and development work. In our global competence centers, we are currently concentrating on two main points – increases in energy efficiency and a reduction in our carbon footprint. There are solid economic reasons for this focus in addition to ecological considerations: a company's rigorous optimization of its environmental balance is often accompanied by improvements in its business efficiency. The synergies that arise in our competence centers are often transferable to other Eppendorf sites.
Eppendorf’s innovative programs also extend to our customer programs which include bundle catalog numbers to make ordering a set of pipettes or a centrifuge with rotor and adapters easier and more transparent. Warranty periods beyond the industry standard to give our customers confidence in their Eppendorf product through the complete lifespan of the product. Eppendorf Advantage offers semi-annual promotions which constantly evolve based on customer interest and need. Eppendorf’s New Lab Start-up Program is intentionally flexible to ensure that the customer is able to customize their buying power to their lab’s requirements. Eppendorf has a large team of field sales and service personnel who are available to work with the innovator to determine and develop a program which is customize to their specific needs and enables that individual’s success.
http://www.eppendorf.com