Lab centrifuge with imbalance shutoff

Claim 1

A lab centrifuge comprising the combination of a base; a centrifuge rotor comprising vessel supports and a motor with a vertical shaft driving said centrifuge rotor into rotation, said motor including a stator; elastic support means supporting said motor and said stator on said base; stator deviation detecting means including a stator-carried component and a component fixed to said base for detecting non-rotary stator deviation from a rest position and producing a signal indicating said deviation, one of said components comprising a field generator generating a constant field and the other component comprising a field intensity detector; and control means for supplying electrical power to said centrifuge, said control means including analyzer means responsive to said signal for deenergizing said centrifuge at a predetermined maximum permissible threshold deviation of said stator, said analyzer means including a calibration means for ascertaining a threshold amplitude of centrifuge rotor imbalance during calibration and storing said amplitude as a limit amplitude in a permanent memory of said analyzer means, and means for determining amplitudes of detected field intensity and comparing said amplitudes to said limit amplitude.