Work benches space requirements

The first step in space planning should be to estimate how much bench space wall be required. Benches must accommodate various pieces of permanently installed equipment and still have room for both frequently performed and special one-time tasks. Benches may be either installed against the wall or placed back to back in peninsulas or islands. The exact configuration will be worked out later. For now, what is important is the total number of running feet of bench space that will be required. 

Preparation Space. The stockroom should have space for preparation of solutions and other items, such as unknowns for courses in qualitative analysis. This requires a regular work bench with sink. There must also be room for prepared solutions to be dispensed to student laboratories in bench-sized bottles, which take up a good deal of space. 

The laboratory workers office space should be as close as possible to work areas and to fi equently used files. There should also be room for a typewTiter, if required. The work may be done on a separate desk or a section of desk-height work bench. 

In an educational laboratory such overhead mounting must be planned with care. The typical work benches here are either peninsulas or islands where the utility box would go down the center with a shelf on top. The total height must be such that the instructor is able to look over the shelf in order to supervise a class. To complicate matters, there may be a waste water trough along the center of the bench which requires some free space above it. These multiple requirements present a challenge to the designer. 

A key item of the fixed equipment in most research laboratories other than those employing only the least hazardous materials is a work enclosure, usually denoted, at least for chemicals, by the common name fume hood. The OSHA Laboratory Safety Standard, while stopping short of requiring a fume hood in each laboratory, does point out that work with almost any hazardous substances can be done safely if done in a suitable, properly functioning, hood. Some laboratory facihties have been constructed recently with no open bench space, with all work within the facility being done within... 

The operator will need room to store samples, along with syringes and other tools, before and after injection. It is best to leave at least a 2 x 2-ft working surface for this purpose. The instrument model will define the space requirement of the gas chromatograph, but in most cases, a 3-ft-wide space is adequate. Add two additional feet for computer controls and other ancillary devices (autosampler controls, purge-and-trap devices, sample concentrators, etc.). Thus, most gas chromatographs and associated devices will require about 6-8 linear feet of counter space. For most labs, this means no more than three to four gas chromatographs on a 20-24-ft (6-7-m) bench. 

All bench-mounted equipment should be listed with its dimensions, which can be taken from measurements or from catalog data. It should be noted which instruments may have to be put at a certain minimum distance from other objects in order to avoid interference or allow for servicing. Work space should be allowed next to each instiiiment for samples, notebooks, etc. This space may be considerable in case of an analytical instrument on which many samples are to be tested at one time. Space sharing should be discouraged, with the required work space next to an instrument reserved for that alone. Sinks and fume hoods should also be included in this list, with an allowance of at least 18 inches of free space on each side of a sink. 

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