Glass specimen tubes and vials are mainly used in the chemistry, pharmaceutical, biology and biotechnology fields, for the collection and storage of organisms, chemical solutions and samples. These strong, reliable containers are manufactured from glass, which has good resistance to a range of chemicals and other liquids, powders, and capsules.
Our specimen tubes are made from type 3 soda glass, which is commonly used for foodstuffs and common chemicals. Our vials are manufactured from type 1 glass (borosilicate), which has high chemical and thermal shock resistance and is widely used for pharmaceuticals and chemicals, which are sensitive to changes in PH levels. Our tubes and vials also come with stoppers, snap-on caps or screw caps, to secure contents.
The good news is that specimen tubes and vials are not just limited to laboratories. If you have never worked in a laboratory and are never likely to, you could still make use of them for craft projects, displays and novelty products. Plus, our range of clear glass specimen tubes and vials all have a flat base, so they can be stood alone, in comparison with test tubes, which require a holding rack.
Here are our 6 alternative uses for specimen tubes and vials
Flowers
Create a unique flower display by standing a few of our 30ml tall clip top glass vials in a row. You can use dried flowers or fresh flowers. Fill the vials with water (if using fresh flowers), cut the stems short and stand a single flower in each vial.
Herbs and spices
Spice up your kitchen with a quirky set of 20ml tall clip top vials to store herbs and spices in, such as saffron, cinnamon or cloves. You can fill them up from larger jars and they won’t take up much space on the kitchen worktop.
Confectionery
If you want wedding favours that are a bit different from the usual sweet jars, our 25ml specimen tube with stopper would make an attractive confectionery container for guests to take home.
Bath salts
Our 30ml vial with screw cap would make a trendy bath salts container. If you use a few vials together as a set, you can put different scented salts in each vial.
Glitter and bead craft containers
Create a craft kit by filling our 30ml vials (with fitted caps) full of glitter, sequins, small beads and other haberdashery items. If you’re into arts, you could also use the vials for inks, dyes and miniature paints too.
Sand collection
Okay, so collecting sand might not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, if you collect sand from each holiday you’ve been on and store and display it in our 15ml clip top glass vials, with a label stating where it originated from, it’ll make a nice display that will bring back memories of all the places you’ve visited.