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Filaments

Box Filaments and Through Filaments

Appropriate filament selection depends on your research application, but a general guideline for filaments is as follows:

Box Filaments - Recommended for small to large diameter borosilicate glass, double barreled, or aluminosilicate glass. Box filaments are particularly suitable for patch pipettes, slice preparations, and for sharp electrodes and microinjection pipettes where gradual parallel walls would aid cell penetration. When using a box filament, the size of the square box should be approximately 1.0mm to 1.5mm larger than the outside diameter of the glass that you will be using.

For IVF and ICSI applications, a 2.5mm x 4.5mm box filament (FB245B) is recommended. For pronuclear injection work, we recommend a 2.5 mm x 2.5 mm box filament (FB255B). Call for more specific advice or to request a combination of settings, filaments, and glass for your application.

Trough Filaments - Excellent general purpose filaments and are recommended for creating longer slice patch pipettes and sharp electrodes. The trough filament is not ideal for making patch pipettes or when using glass over 1.2 mm OD. If very short tapers are required for patch electrodes or for microinjection, a 2.5 mm or 3 mm box filament is recommended.

Custom Filaments - A custom filament can be created if your pipette needs can not be met by one of the standard box or trough filaments. Please call Sutter for details.

Sutter pre-programs the P-97 and P-1000 with a 2.5 mm x 2.5 mm box filament unless an alternative filament is requested.

For either shape of filament (box or trough), increasing the filament width tends to increase the length of the pipette taper. If there are specific questions as to the sizes needed, please call and our technical support staff will guide you in your choice.

 

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