Page 13 - Catalogue - cuvettes and solid-state calibration standards

Materials and transmission characteristics

FireflySci uses only the highest quality materials for its products. Optical and Pyrex glass are manufactured by
Schott (Germany), UV (ES) and IR quartz are from Shin-Etsu, the largest Japanese chemical company.

The Lab-Club products also utilize optical and Pyrex glass from Schott and ES quartz from Shin-Etsu. The IR
quartz is from Saint-Gobain.

Transmission characteristics

Material FireflySci Lab-Club Application Useful range Transmission Matching
Code Code tolerance
Optical glass G G VIS 340-2500 nm >82% @ 350 nm 0.5% @ 350 nm
ES quartz (UV) UV Q UV/VIS 190-2500 nm >80% @ 200 nm 0.5% @ 200 nm
IR quartz IR I UV/VIS/NIR 220-3500 nm >82% @ 2730 nm 0.5% @ 2730 nm

Manufacturing methods

In addition to the use of high quality materials the manufacturing method plays the most important role in the
production of excellent cuvettes. Most types of cuvette comprise four or five glass or quartz plates. These are fused
together by fire, a process that demands skill and experience. The best method, utilized by FireflySci, is low-
pressure thermofusion. Please note that the FireflySci products do not contain glass frit – this “glass cement” is
used by some manufacturers of cheap cells and may be permeable.

For flow-through cytometry cell uses it’s imperative that the components are fused. Our ES (UV) quartz cells for
this application easily withstand the high pressure and high-performance lasers used in this application area.

Polishing: after completion, the blank cells need to be polished. As hand-polished cells deliver very unreliable
results, polishing at FireflySci is done in special rotating polishing machines. The better the polishing result, the
higher the optical transmission of the finished product.

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All prices are shown in Euro and are subject to VAT where applicable.