Future requirements for modern analytical ultracentrifuges

Abstract

The last improvements on the most used analytical ultracentrifuge (AUC), the Model E from Beckman Instruments, were made 30 years ago. Only a few individual laboratories have made some further improvements. There has been, indeed, an anouncement of a new AUC from Beckman for 1991, with some interesting refinements, but we think it is possible to do it better. Thus, we propose details of future AUC. Some of the proposed features are already realized in individual labs, some have to be developped in the future. The propose main features are the following: 1) Multihole-rotors; 2) Multiple detection systems; 3) Automatic on-line data analysis, and 4) A new running technique with continuously increasing rotor speed ω.