Eppi™ Turns 50

The microliter system celebrates its birthday

Not many innovations set standards and revolutionize application processes, but the Eppendorf Tubes®, also known as the “Eppi™”, can certainly claim to be one of them.

The first Eppendorf Tubes® appeared on the market in 1963 and quickly gained popularity in German medical and bioscience laboratories. Eppis™ allowed laboratory workers to fill and store small sample amounts easily and practically. They were also useful for multiple experiments, because they reduced the total amount of sample material needed. The development of vaccines and new medications would be unthinkable today without the Eppi™ and its specific material properties, which Eppendorf has continued to develop.

Part of the microliter system

The impetus for developing the Eppendorf Tubes® was the 1961 invention of the piston pipette, which enabled the precise manual measurement of liquids in milliliters.  Since at the time there were no devices that could process these samples further, Eppendorf invented the microliter system, consisting of mixers, centrifuges and Eppendorf Tubes®. To this day, these products remain the core not just of laboratory work, but also Eppendorf’s product portfolio.

By 1966, Eppendorf had sold more than one million Eppendorf Tubes®, and just five years later the ten-million mark was passed. The great demand for products from an ever larger portfolio led to Eppendorf’s decision to open a production site in 1975 in Oldenburg, Holstein. The same year saw the market launch of a capless tube for the automated pipetting systems on the market, and different sizes adapted to customer needs were also produced. In 1992 Eppendorf's ”Biopur®“ standard was certified. Laboratory consumables that bear this seal are sterile and free of DNA and even ATP, among other things. They are subject to a total of eight lot-specific tests that are all certified. Biopur® represents the highest grade of purity currently offered by Eppendorf.

Eppendorf Tubes® are produced in our main factory in Oldenburg under the most modern manufacturing conditions. Over a billion Eppis™ have been manufactured since the Eppi™ was invented, and today the Eppendorf Tubes® set the standard worldwide for simple, safe sample processing in the microliter area.

The average German laboratory uses hundreds of them every week, ensuring the Eppi™ an uncontested ranking as one of the most important consumable items in the lab – as well as being one of the most well-known products associated with the Eppendorf name. Laboratories all over the world profit from the quality of the Eppi™, which has set standards across the industry together with other Eppendorf consumables and devices.

New 5.0 mL Eppi™

In 2013 we have launched the Eppendorf Tubes® 5.0 mL on the market, a step that will close a gap in the available tube sizes. We will also be offering an extensive system of adapters, rotors, racks and accessories. A big new microliter system is born, and with it, a new chapter in the success story of the Eppi™! We already have the first proof: even before its official launch, the Eppendorf Tubes® 5.0 mL and the Tube Rack 5.0 mL, along with other Eppendorf products, won the red dot design award 2013 in the category Life Science and Medicine.