Laboratory Instrument Display and Storage Guidelines

 First, laboratories contain many miscellaneous items: glassware, bottles and jars; fragile glass tubes of varying lengths; and equipment ranging from ovens and balances to nails and wires. Small items such as glass sheets, porcelain chips, cloth scraps, cotton, thread, yarn, clay, sand, stones, wooden blocks and strips may be indispensable for particular experiments.   

Second, there are many chemicals: toxic, hazardous, flammable, explosive and volatile substances, in liquid and solid forms, organic and inorganic. Hundreds of reagents can have very different properties. Some ignite in air and must be kept under water; others react with water and must be stored under kerosene.   

Third, water use is extensive. Most chemical reactions occur in solution, most reagent preparation requires water, and glassware cleaning uses large quantities. These three characteristics support managing chemical laboratories through separate rooms and classified storage.     

Instrument room: Store chemical testing instruments other than reagents, including balances, pH meters, centrifuges and other precision instruments, together with glassware such as test tubes, beakers, measuring cylinders and droppers.   

Chemical storage room: Disorganized storage, expired chemicals and damaged labels are safety hazards. Classify reagents by their properties and store them appropriately. Separate inorganic and organic substances, oxidizers and reducing agents, and toxic, flammable and explosive materials. Apply suitable protective measures to each cabinet and keep reagent-use records.

Instrument display and storage should be scientifically sound, standardized, safe, rational, orderly and convenient.

1. Scientific requirements 

Store instruments systematically. Protect magnets from shock and demagnetization and maintain a closed magnetic circuit. Pair bar magnets with opposite poles facing, stacking them alternately so unlike poles connect. Pair horseshoe magnets with unlike poles together, or place a keeper across a single horseshoe magnet's opening. Small magnetic needles should rest along the Earth's magnetic field and be protected from external fields. Prolonged proximity of like poles can affect magnetization; arrange multiple needles north-to-south. 

2. Management requirements 

Display and storage are central to systematic management. Classify and number instruments, assign cabinets by category and positions by number, and organize shelves and locations. Label every item and provide a cabinet inventory. Keep rows and columns orderly. Number cabinets consistently by discipline and attach location labels.

Cabinet-door labels should show instrument numbers, names, specifications and quantities. Write them in permanent carbon ink and place them neatly at the top or right of the door for easy reference.

Store instruments separately from chemicals, which can corrode metal parts and release gases harmful to equipment. Use separate cabinets where possible. Small chemical inventories may share a room if effectively segregated, while working toward separate storage. Keep chemicals dry, cool, ventilated and protected from light. Use wide-mouth bottles for solids, narrow-neck bottles for liquids and amber bottles for light-sensitive reagents. Use rubber stoppers for alkaline solutions; acids generally require ground-glass bottles rather than rubber or cork stoppers. 

3. Accessibility requirements  

Arrange instruments for quick access to avoid wasted searching. Assign fixed areas and keep locations stable. Mark storage positions with numbers or outlines of instruments and tools. Missing items, such as unreturned loans, then become immediately visible and easier to check. 

4. Appearance requirements  

Display and storage should support management and visual inspection. Transparent or partly transparent cabinets replace opaque storage with visible organization. Keep instruments neat, standardized and orderly, with an appropriate presentation rather than a colorful retail-style display.

5. Safety requirements  

Storage must include precautions to eliminate accident hazards. Valuable instruments and flammable, explosive or toxic chemicals require dedicated safeguarding measures. 

1. Keep instruments in cabinets wherever possible. Oversized items may be placed on cabinet tops or racks with dust covers, such as transparent plastic bags, rather than on the floor. Generally place large and heavy items below, small and light items above, short items in front and tall items behind. Lower-grade instruments go below higher-grade instruments. 

2. Keep instruments in their normal upright or flat orientation. Balances, microscopes and many other instruments must not be inverted or laid on their sides. Lay plastic parts, rubber parts and measuring tools flat rather than spanning supports. 

3. Avoid stacking. Leave space between instruments and prevent overlap, pressure or interlocking. Cushion shelves for fragile, rolling or easily scratched items such as thermometers and test tubes with soft fabric or tissue, or store them in suitable boxes. 

4. Avoid direct sunlight, especially on electronic instruments. If sunlight reaches a cabinet, use curtains or covers for shade. 

5. Keep storage rooms clean, dry and ventilated. Eliminate rodents, cockroaches and termites. Cabinets must resist dust, close tightly and be cleaned regularly. 

6. Protect most instruments from moisture, particularly during the rainy season. Use desiccants such as quicklime, charcoal, calcium chloride or silica gel in valuable-instrument cabinets. Store electronics and audiovisual equipment in ventilated, dry locations, generally on upper shelves, and power them periodically. If damp, dry them with an infrared lamp or hair dryer and ensure the interior is completely dry before connecting the circuit for use. 

7. Protect instrument-specific properties. Keep magnetic objects away from color televisions, including their tops and sides. Do not move tape recorders, radios, speakers or other magnetic objects across the screen, as they can magnetize tube components and distort color or cause patches. Release tension in tapes, springs and drive belts after use to prevent elastic fatigue.

8. Prevent damage to protective surfaces, including rustproof coatings, alloy films and aluminum-oxide layers; do not rub them off. For storage, apply neutral petroleum jelly or wax and wrap with oiled paper. Prevent batteries from short-circuiting or leaking. 

9. Prevent waste by sealing volatile materials such as alcohol and ether. Seal large bottles intended for long-term storage with wax. Keep small working quantities in narrow-neck bottles with ground-glass stoppers; coat stoppers for alkaline reagents with a thin layer of paraffin. Cap alcohol lamps tightly immediately after use. 

10. Keep instrument sets complete. Store similar instruments together and promptly return main units, accessories, spare parts and teaching-kit components to their boxes after use to prevent loss.