Bead beating is an efficient method for liberating cellular DNA without introducing inhibitors that inhibit PCR reactions (13). The BioSpec Mini-Beadbeater works by violently shaking sealed microcentrifuge vials containing cells or tissues, extraction solution and glass, zirconia or stainless steel beads in them.
Preloaded beads in 2 ml screw cap vials and 96 well microplates can be obtained on request.
Sizes
When selecting zirconia beads, make sure they match up with the parts or elements being processed to achieve an efficient grinding process and save you time and effort. Furthermore, their high density helps minimize wear-and-tear, making them three times more durable than glass beads.
BioSpec offers an assortment of zirconia beads in various sizes to meet the requirements of various processes, such as:
Zirconia Silicate Beads: They consist of 95% zirconium and 5% yttria, making them more effective than their conventional zirconium silicate beads counterparts in milling, dispersing, and polishing applications. They’re more flexible as well – perfect for milling, dispersing and polishing applications alike!
Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Beads: These beads are excellent for high-velocity milling applications and feature exceptional strength to handle even the toughest jobs with ease. Perfect for grinding metallic elements like silver and gold.
These beads can help create a very finely ground sample that can then be used for various other tasks, such as lysing cells or measuring protein concentration. You could even use these beads to test for oxidation in foods, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
Applications
Zirconia beads have many applications, from grinding & milling to dispersant media use and more. Some common applications of zirconia beads include material preparation for paints & coatings, ceramics, abrasion and other manufacturing processes. Demand for Zirconia beads is expected to rise significantly in North America due to advanced industries including adhesives & sealants production – hence why Arkema acquired Ashland Performance Adhesive Business to increase their presence within these markets in 2022.
Bead size is an integral element in the efficiency of the grinding process. A smaller bead will have greater surface area coming in contact with material, shortening grinding times while decreasing overall bead life expectancy.
BioSpec Products provides four varieties of zirconia bead sizes ranging from 0.3 mm to 2.5 mm in diameter, featuring high quality beads with 95% zirconia content for use in mills requiring them. Two ml screw cap microvials that can be used with the MiniBeadbeater or in stainless steel containers house these bead sizes.
Pre-Loaded Beads
Pre-loaded beads offer laboratories the potential to save considerable time when used with a Mini Bead Beater cell disrupter, eliminating the preparation process entirely. BioSpec Products offers both glass and zirconia/silica pre-loaded beads ready to use immediately without further preparation.
The “Fill & Flip” Microplate Bead Loader Set uses one manual motion to load either 0.3 or 1 milliliter of pre-loaded beads into a 96-well deep well microplate (the’measuring’ microplate). A tight fitting stainless steel frame is then placed over this loaded measuring plate and, upside-down, another larger capacity 96-well “receiving” microplate placed into their pair is then manually inverted such that its lower surface presses onto the top surface of’measuring’ microplate, transferring beads between plates.
The Mini-Bead Beater-1 uses high shaking energies to violently agitate sealed 0.6 ml microcentrifuge vials containing cells or tissues, extract solution, and small glass, zirconia, or steel beads in order to shear and lyse membranes for DNA and RNA beadbeating. Due to these vibrations, standard polypropylene or stainless steel microvials may crack under their own weight during beadbeating – which is why BioSpec Products stocks both “XXTuff” reinforced polypropylene or steel microvials capable of withstanding beadbeating energies used when beadbeating takes place.
Custom Beads
Selecting the ideal size beads for your wet processing equipment is key to improving both efficiency and product quality. Zirconia beads offer consistent dispersion of materials that will produce higher-quality products while their longer lifespan means lower replacement costs and labor expenses.
Biospec offers zirconia beads in multiple sizes to meet a wide array of applications. Use 0.1 mm zirconia beads for bacteria and spores; use 0.5 mm zirconia/silica beads to disrupt yeast, fungi, unicellular animal cells like leucocytes; use 1.0 mm beads for most tissue; our zirconia beads are compatible with all commercial shaking-type bead mill cell disruptors including Mini-BeadBeater-1-16-24 and -96 (BioSpec Products; Bartlesville OK); Retsch Mixer MM 301& 400 (F. Kurt Retsch GmbH; Haan, Germany); FastPrep-24& -96 (MP Biomedicals; Santa Ana CA); MagNA Lyser& Precellys Evolution (Bertin Instruments; Montigny-le-Bretonneux France).
Yttria-stabilized zirconia beads are an integral component of paints & coatings manufacturing, serving to grind pigments into fine particles with their high crushing strength and chemical resistance, producing smooth textures with finer particle sizes for production lines.
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