Laboratory glass tubingis used in many laboratories or industrial workplaces to connect other items of glassware or equipment and to convey or deliver chemicals, solvents, liquids, gases and other products.

Lab glass tubing is normally manufactured from borosilicate glass for the most demanding applications. Borosilicate offers good resistance to heat, thermal shock and chemicals, with low-leaching extractables, good mechanical strength and a low coefficient of expansion. Soda lime glass tubing and flint glass tubing have lower softening points and are generally used for less exacting purposes.

Lab glass tubing is available in a range of diameters, lengths and wall thicknesses depending on the intended application. If the lab has the appropriate technical expertise, general-purpose glass tubing can be used as the starting point for the construction of far more complex pieces of glassware. It can be cut, bent or stretched into the requisite conformation after the application of heat.

Lengths of tubing can be held together with clips, clampsor dedicated adapters for a firm seal. Some tubing systems have ground glass cone and socket joints, available in different sizes and configurations, along with other compatible accessories such as stopcocks and splash-heads.

Laboratory glass tubing has a variety of applications:

• In the chemistry laboratory for organic syntheses, fractionation, distillation or titration
• In the biological science laboratory to set up simple chromatographic or filter columns
• In classrooms and other education environments, for example gas delivery and collection experiments
• In chemical, pharmaceutical or biotech laboratories such as manufacturing pipelines, test or scale-up rigs