The laboratory equipment market consists of centrifuges, transfection, extraction techniques, fume hoods, biological safety cabinets (BSCs), incubators, microwave-assisted chemistry and fermentors/bioreactors. The lab equipment market accounted for nearly $2.5 billion in revenues in 2010 and will experience modest growth of 4.4% in 2011 to exceed $2.5 billion. Much of this growth will be due to increased funding for analytical instrumentation.

Because laboratory equipment is used in nearly all labs, sales are heavily dependent on leading industries’ purchases of laboratory analytical instrumentation. Labs focused on life science applications tend to use laboratory equipment more extensively. Therefore, the top three industries, academia, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, accounted for about half of the 2010 market demand for lab equipment.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is a dominant supplier in the laboratory equipment market, with nearly one-fourth market share. Beckman Coulter accounts for one-tenth of the market. Other vendors in the laboratory equipment market are fairly specialized and are involved in only one or two segments of the lab equipment business, and thus account for 5% of less of the total market.

The centrifuge market is the largest lab equipment segment and will account for one-third of the market in 2011. This market is currently in a mature state and will only experience growth of slightly more than 2%. Thermo and Beckman Coulter are the two dominant companies in the centrifuge market. Combined, both vendors accounted for nearly two-thirds of the 2010 market demand for centrifuges.

The transfection market accounted for about 16% of 2010 laboratory equipment revenues. In addition to being the second-largest market, the transfection market experienced the fastest growth rate in 2010, nearly 11%, more than double the growth rate for the laboratory equipment market. The two biggest vendors in the transfection market are Life Technologies and Roche, which together accounted for more than half of 2010 market revenues.

Extraction techniques, which include solid phase extraction, accelerated solvent extraction/pressurized solvent extraction and supercritical fluid extraction, Soxhlet/liquid-liquid extraction, and digestion, accounted for 14% of the 2010 laboratory equipment market with a growth rate similar to that of the overall market. Agilent, which now owns Varian, and Waters are two of the leaders in this market.

Incubators, fume hoods and BSCs are all designed to control the sample or researcher’s immediate environment. Laboratory incubators function to maintain an isolated, controlled environment for in vitro studies or to grow biological samples. Fume hoods and BSCs are designed to protect the sample and researchers. Out of the three segments, laboratory incubators will experience the slowest growth in 2011, at 1.7%. Incubators are the fourth-largest laboratory equipment segment, accounting for nearly 10% of the market. Fume hoods and BSCs posted 2010 growth rates of 4.4% and 3.0% and account for 9.2% and 8.3% of the market, respectively.

Fermentors/bioreactors and microwave-assisted extraction techniques are the two smallest laboratory equipment markets, each accounting for 5% of the total market. Microwave-assisted chemistry techniques, which primarily include microwave digestion, extraction and synthesis, will grow more than 5% in 2011, while fermentors/bioreactors will grow 3.9%. CEM and Biotage are the leaders in the microwave-assisted chemistry segment. Sartorius and Eppendorf lead the bioreactors/fermentors market.

 Lab Equipment 2010–2011

                                             Market Share      Growth Rate

 Centrifuge                                  32.3%              2.4%

 Transfection                                16.1%             11.0%

 Extraction Techniques                       14.3%              4.0%

 Incubators                                   9.7%              1.7%

 Fume Hoods                                   9.2%              4.4%

 Biological Safety Cabinets                   8.3%              3.0%

 Fermentors/Bioreactors                       5.0%              3.9%

 Microwave Asst. Chemistry                    5.0%              5.1%

 Total                                      100.0%              4.4%

 Pie Chart: 2010 Lab Equipment Suppliers Market Shares

 Thermo Fisher Scientific    24%

 Beckman Coulter             10%

 Life Technologies            5%

 Eppendorf                    4%

 CEM                          3%

 Other                       54%

 Column Graph: 2009–2012 Select Laboratory Equipment Market

                   2009       2010       2011      2012

 $ Millions        2,304      2,448      2,556     2,653

 Lab Equipment Market Leaders

 Centrifuges                 Thermo Fisher Sci., Beckman Coulter

 Transfection                Life Technologies, Roche 

 Extraction Techniques       Agilent/Varian, Waters

 Incubators                  Thermo Fisher Scientific, Sanyo

 Fume Hoods                  Thermo Fisher Sci., Kewaunee Sci.

 Biological Safety Cabinets  Thermo Fisher Scientific, NuAire

 Fermentors/Bioreactors      Sartorius, Eppendorf

 Microwave Asst. Chemistry   CEM, Biotage

 Pie Chart: 2010 Lab Equipment Market by Product Type

 Initial Systems     56%

 Aftermarket         37%

 Service              7%