Description:

The BioPhotometer 6131 is a palm-sized, single-beam spectrophotometer tuned to six factory-fixed xenon-flash wavelengths (230, 260, 280, 320, 562 and 595 nm). Because a silicon-photodiode reference monitors every pulse, complete absorbance data appear in under one second without baseline drift. A holographic concave grating supplies 5 nm bandwidth in the UV (7 nm in the visible) and keeps stray light below 0.05 %, while photometric precision better than 0.005 A at 1 A preserves the linearity needed for low-copy nucleic-acid quantification. Twelve built-in, editable method slots cover 260/280, Bradford, BCA and cell-density protocols; results export through the RS-232 port or print on Z-fold thermal paper. Housed in a spill-proof aluminum shell that measures only 7.9 × 12.6 × 3.9 in and weighs 6.6 lb, the instrument runs from any 100–240 V outlet and draws < 20 W, making it equally at home on crowded biosafety-cabinet shelves and teaching benches.

Economic Advantage:

Early 2000-era labs had to choose between bulky scanning spectrophotometers or costly micro-volume readers. The 6131’s fixed-λ array cut price and footprint by 60 % while still covering every routine life-science assay, turning a multi-user workhorse into an affordable personal tool. Xenon flashes last for millions of shots, eliminating the $200 mercury lamps typical of full scanners, and the metal chassis retains calibration, so resale values stay high. Together, low consumable cost and long service life deliver one of the lowest lifetime dollars-per-sample metrics in academic genomics.