Vials & Microplates

To meet our customer’s needs, the DWK Life Sciences lab vial and microplate inventory are both vast and varied. What remains consistent across all 10,000 available configurations, however, is our dedication to meeting or exceeding global standards and OEM specifications.

Our manufacturing capabilities offer standard and custom lab vial solutions for applications ranging from storage to analysis to commercialization. Our ISO-registered vial manufacturing facility features state-of-the-art machines, the latest integrated automation technology, and cleanroom robotics packaging. This capability ensures our commitment to excellence.

Whether your needs center on sample collection, storage, automation, or analytical instrumentation and commercialization, our lab vials deliver the reliability, purity, safety, and robustness of your work demands. In addition, we offer numerous closure options and services including custom designs, barcoding, critical cleaning, and surface treatments.

With thousands of combinations to choose from, DWK Life Sciences offers the largest and most diverse selection of chromatography lab vial solutions and microplates. Our ISO 9001 facility manufactures vials that meet or exceed OEM specifications for headspace, routine HPLC/GC use, plus Certified vials for LCMS/GCMS. To ensure high material purity and product reliability, all of our chromatography vials are converted from Type I borosilicate glass tubing. Purchase options include with or without caps; quantities from 100 to full pallets; convenience kits, component kits, assembled vials; and barcoded for inventory and sample management. Standard crimp, snap ring, and screw thread finishes are available, as well as shell vial and lid-style configurations that are complemented by a wide range of both glass and plastic inserts.

For your convenience, glass vial options include with or without marking spots (writing patch), graduated, silanized, high-recovery designs, glass-plastic hybrids, EPA and plastic vials. Our MicroLiter™ brand of chromatography vials uniquely offers mass spectrometry certified Class 10K clean-packed solutions for both routine and critical work. To help protect light-sensitive samples, many sizes and types of vials are available in amberized glass or dark plastic. Our vials are compatible with most lab equipment including liquid handlers, scintillation counters, x-y-z robots, stand-alone autosampler, centrifuges, and other common commercial lab needs.

Our wide variety of plastic vials conforms to strict manufacturing and material controls to deliver optimal performance and reliability. Additionally, multiple cap color choices help identify sample type, workflow, projects, or dedicated automation equipment use and our dark colors enhance automation detection sensors. We offer closures for improved magnetics handling and certified septa for the most critical mass spectrometry needs. To satisfy your requirements beyond standard product offerings, additional product enhancements are available, including critical cleaning, barcoding, surface treatments, custom packaging, and custom product solutions.

Our microplates, from basic collection to high-throughput automation, are offered in various SBS-compatible well shapes and volume configurations including your choice of closure options. Mindful of customer requests, our preloaded inserts are suited for integration with filtration elution needs or for when migration to or from autosampler vials is required. Our versatile user-configurable 96-well MicroLiter Plate Sampling System™ facilitates method development and high-volume throughput whether used manually or with automation. In addition, our variety of volume sizes — including standard amber inserts — can be serially capped or can employ a 96-well mat. Carrier plates can be reused or repurposed for lab waste reduction. Standard polypropylene microplates are available in various well depths, shapes, and bottom configurations to best suit your application.

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Our eight types of sample storage vial types address needs from general lab sample storage to more critical applications such as storage of biologicals, diagnostic medications, solids, liquids, and powders. Standard storage vials can be purchased with or without caps, attached or unattached in many cap configurations. Our innovative Shorty Vials® feature a low profile for greater stability and less dead volume to offer better storage efficiency than standard options. The E-C line of economically priced lab vials offers low-cost separate packaging of vials and caps.

To simplify ordering, storage, and sample management, we offer two convenient product solutions that feature vials (or vials & caps) preinstalled in organization containers.

  • Lab File® features partitioned trays to provide an easy way to inventory samples or to store empty vials.
  • Vial File® provides a compact, easily accessible means of sample storage in clear plastic hinged and labeled, a lidded case with partitions and foam inserts to protect the vials.

For biologicals, our autoclavable culture vial and cap is specifically designed with longer cap skirts to allow safer, more dependable handling for working with infectious materials. Finally, our multi-purpose disposable glass (or HDPE plastic) Sampule® Vials and Omni-Vial® (polypropylene) serve as economical storage vials, chromatography vials, or scintillation vials.

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Applications for liquid scintillation lab vials — invented by WHEATON® over 65 years ago — have expanded well beyond scintillation counting. To guarantee the purity and strength required, all of our scintillation vials are converted from Type I, 33 expansion borosilicate glass tubing. Their optimized design improves background counts and affords high UV transmission rates for the precise, consistent results your work requires. Many of our customers find these vials ideal for storage applications as well. Screw caps can be attached, packaged separately, or simply omitted. HDPE scintillation vials are also available as stand-alone vials or nested/suspended inside a 20 mL glass vial. And of course, polyethylene versions are also available.

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Autoclavable serum vials are well-suited for the handling, containment, and storage of a variety of liquids including reagents, vaccines, blood plasma, culture media, and chromatography samples. Compared to molded bottles, the tubular design offers excellent clarity, lighter weight, and dimensional consistency. Our specially designed bottom radius adds strength for thermal shock and/or handling, while the unique blowback feature eases lyophilization stoppers. Converted from Type I borosilicate glass tubing, our vials conform to the hydrolytic resistance requirements outlined in USP <660> and EP 3.2.1. We also offer an amber-colored glass to protect light-sensitive samples. Our aluminum crimp seals, septa, and stoppers are available separately. To reduce particulate contamination, lab vials are shrink-wrapped in modules.

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Our innovative high-recovery vials — designed for the comprehensive collection and automated handling and storage — allow for subsequent maximum retrieval of high-value samples. NextGen™ V Vials® are perfect for small scale reactions (accepts spin vanes), centrifugation, storage, packaging, and shipping of vital samples. Our precision vials are made from low-expansion borosilicate glass and designed with a unique interior conical center-draining shape which encourages maximum retrieval of contents by a syringe. Graduated and non-graduated versions are available in screw thread or serum finish.

E-Z Ex-Traction® lab vials feature our revolutionary contoured bottom walls that smoothly drain to a conical well. This feature vastly improves sample recovery over other types of high recovery vials. Additionally, the exterior bottom has been engineered for automated sample handling systems whether for routine laboratory applications of compound storage library use. Closures can be purchased separately.

ACCUFORM® micro-vials have a V-shaped interior to enable recovery of a minute residual sample with a syringe and are offered with open-top caps (graduated or non-graduated) or sold with solid tops (graduated). For the highest purity and performance using library storage systems or high-throughput screening, consider ACCUFORM® SSR™ shoulderless, straight-sided vials. These vials are designed to facilitate reliable storage, retrieval, analysis, and delivery of valuable liquid or powder samples. The base of the vial has been engineered to accept 2D barcoding while the interior offers less than 10 uL of dead volume.

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Fabricated from USP Type I borosilicate glass, our ampules provide maximum solution stability and easy hermetic sealing. Depending on your application, you can choose pre-scored for safe and easy opening or non-scored. Stems can be pull or tip-sealed. We also offer capacities ranging from 1 mL to 20 mL, in a variety of pack sizes. As with many of our products, customization options include barcoding, pre-cleaning, and other capacities and styles. Our Cryule® Ampules — designed mainly for biological samples — are safe for the vapor phase of liquid nitrogen use and are offered pre-scored, with or without an indicating gold band. Vacule® vials are also available and feature heavy wall construction
designed to withstand lyophilization and freeze-drying applications.

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Frequently Asked Questions

If they’re glass, then yes. However, certain GC autosamplers use grippers that must function properly with the vial. The MicroLiter 76-Series TM has been engineered to align all GC autosamplers as well as HPLC and LCMS autosamplers. Additionally, confirm that your HPLC septa are compatible with your GC solvents and application. You can standardize your vial, but you may require different septa for HPLC vs. GC.

Typically serum finish vials with a crimp top deliver the best defense. To avoid under and over-torque with screw thread vials, a properly adjusted hand or automatic crimper largely eliminates this issue. Depending on the evaporation characteristics of the compound(s), solvent, storage conditions, duration of storage, and method requirements, screw cap vials may sufficiently perform well; however, if any evaporation could impact results then we recommend that you default to crimp top vials.

The polymer spring’s primary function is to provide upwards pressure against the septa to ensure minimal sample evaporation or loss into the vial cavity. It will not offer any protection from the needle bend.

We do not recommend storage directly in contact with the liquid phase, only in the gas phase.

Yes to both questions — we’re happy to customize your order and your packaging. DWK Life Sciences offers custom containers and custom packaging, bar coding, critical cleaning, surface treatment, and pre-weighed containers.

Our key reason for not having skirted round bottom options is due to the high recovery design of our freestanding cryovials. Compared to many vials on the market, our freestanding vials do not have a true, deep conical bottom. Instead, the vials have a shallow V-shaped bottom, which allows samples to be spun at low speeds if necessary while providing a better ability for complete sample recovery. We have found that the available round bottom vials with a skirted bottom do not provide a stable free-standing vial.

651490 => 12.5 mm diameter x 38 mm tall. 
651492 => 12.5 mm diameter x 50 mm tall.

CryoFile® => 12.5 mm diameter x 50 mm tall. 
CryoFile® XL => 12.5 mm diameter x 95 mm tall.