Avoid costly mistakes by choosing the right components early

One of our Business Development Managers, Travis Kemp, talks about the difference between his theoretical experience of orifice restrictors and the reality of their application in the work place.

“I’m starting a series of posts called ‘What I Wish I Knew as a Bioprocess Engineer’. I have a ChemEng degree, have worked in bioprocessing start‑ups, and I’ve lived the gap between theory and practice. Since then, I’ve joined TWG and learned about the huge range of components available to engineers and where many of the practical limits lie. My aim with these posts is to help others avoid costly mistakes by choosing the right components early, from someone who now understands microscale components better than most. 

Orifice Restrictors: An example of lecture‑taught theory, but missing practical knowledge

At university I learned about orifice/flow restrictors in a lot of detail, such as: ΔP = f(flow, viscosity, geometry), the formation of eddies, pressure losses, transport phenomena, etc. By the time I graduated, I was confident I knew everything I’d need to know to design one in real life. 

Meanwhile, my role as a bioprocess engineer at CellRev was all about cell culture at bench scale. The reality was that it was very uncommon to use restrictors in our lab set‑ups. Flow control was usually handled with pumps or clamps. Restrictors rarely came up in day‑to‑day work.

Much later, when I joined TWG, I saw my first actual orifice restrictors and I didn’t even know that’s what they were when I first saw them. I suspect many bioprocess engineers, especially those with a ChemEng background, are in a similar position: a solid understanding of the fluid theory behind flow restriction but limited exposure to real examples. So next time, I’ll cover: 

• What a microscale orifice restrictor looks like
• When or why you’d use one in a lab‑scale set‑up
• How material and connection choices change with application 

Bridging this knowledge gap, together with the theory most engineers already have, would make orifice restrictors a far more useful and accessible tool for lab‑scale fluid control.”

Travis would love to share his knowledge further so why not send your questions by email info@westgroup.co.uk or through our TWG chatbot?  Alternatively, explore our range here.