Flame sterilization remains until now a routine task carried out in many microbiological, clinical and life sciences laboratories. Bunsen burners pro­vide a flame with tem­peratures up to 1200°C. Natural gas (pri­marily methane), liquefied pe­tro­leum gas such as pro­pane, bu­tane or a mixture of both are used as fuels.

Traditionally, Bunsen burners have been used as the standard equipment for routine flame sterili­zation work. However, the danger of working with alco­hol burners, ordi­nary gas cookers or traditional Bunsen burn­ers connected to a gas distribution system should not be un­deresti­mated. A major source of danger is posed by leaking systems, causing highly flam­mable gas to escape. Furthermore, accidents are caused by unattended burners and the fact that the hot blue flame is often barely visible.

Acci­dents caused by burners are rela­tively rare, but when they do occur they are often devastat­ing, resulting in severe injuries or fires. It’s no won­der that safety offi­cers are keen to encourage labo­ratory staff to avoid open flames whenever pos­sible.

The safe alternative to traditional Bunsen burners

Safety Bunsen burners were developed to reduce the dan­gers described above. The following features make them safe burners:

Flame monitoring

To prevent dangerous gas leak­age, safety Bunsen burners automati­cally try to reignite the flame if it acci­dentally extin­guishes. Should it for any reason fail to do so, safety burners will inter­rupt the gas supply reliably.

User-defined maximum burning time

An automatic shut off after a user-defined maximum burning time eliminates any dan­ger if the Bunsen burner is unintentionally left on. Thus, gas flows only if the flame is consciously ignited. More­over, a short burning time re­duces the risk of burns.

Alarm display feature

An alarm display on the graphical user in­terface indicates that the burner head is still hot in order to protect the operator from burns.

Convenient handling

Gas ignition is rapid and safe, requiring no lighter or matches, with automatic ignition triggered by an optical sensor, foot or benchtop switch to offer hands-free operation.

The FIREBOY Bunsen burner from INTEGRA is an intrinsically safe alternative to the traditional Bunsen burner connected to a laboratory gas supply. Advanced temperature protection, flame monitor and alarm display features serve to protect both the operator and operating environment. Operating from a wide range of gas cartridges and powered from a battery the robustly designed FIREBOY can be used wherever lab professionals wish.

Learn more about the FIREBOY safety Bunsen burner