FPLC systems

Buying guide

The first thing to settle is the separation chemistry the work demands, because that decides the column, the pressure range and the pump before any brand enters the conversation. An ion-exchange or affinity step runs at low pressure and tolerates a wide range of hardware; a size-exclusion polishing step wants a stable, pulse-free gradient and a detector that resolves closely eluting peaks. A buyer purifying a tagged recombinant protein and a buyer running size-exclusion on an antibody are looking for different instruments under the same category name, so fix the method first and read the specifications against it.

Flow rate and pressure rating follow from that method. Analytical and small-prep work sits comfortably in the low millilitre-per-minute band, while process-scale protein purification needs higher flow and larger column fittings. Check that the pump covers the gradient range the separation needs and that the system pressure limit matches the column and resin, since a resin packed to a higher back pressure than the hardware allows will throttle every run.

On a used instrument, the questions move from the datasheet to the history of the unit. Pump seals and check valves wear and are the usual cause of an unstable gradient, so ask when they were last replaced. The UV flow cell is the component that quietly drifts; a cell with fouling or a bubble trap problem will give a baseline no column can fix. Confirm that the fraction collector, the valves and the control software are present and talk to each other, because a system assembled from parts of two generations can be harder to run than a complete older one. Where documentation matters, manuals can be requested through Questpair and specialists respond within an hour.

Price spans the full width of the category. Listings range from EUR 86 to EUR 95.000, with an average around EUR 20.828. The low end covers fraction collectors, detectors and pumps sold on their own, and the high end covers complete process-scale systems with large pumps and automated valve blocks. For a buyer weighing cost against budget, a used or refurbished FPLC system is more affordable than new and is where most of the available hardware sits. Cytiva and GE Healthcare instruments dominate the used market, so the for-sale listings are easier to compare like for like than in a more fragmented category, and spare parts are correspondingly easier to source. Where warranty matters, it is arranged in consultation for the specific listing.

Types of FPLC systems

Which FPLC system types are listed?

Among the listings that specify a type, the catalogue holds complete fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) systems, standalone protein purification systems, fraction collectors, general liquid chromatography systems, bioprocessing equipment and broader chromatography systems. A complete FPLC system bundles the pump, column, detector and collector for a full purification run, and is what most buyers mean by the term. A standalone protein purification system may be configured for a single mode such as affinity or ion exchange. Fraction collectors appear on their own because they are the component most often replaced or added. The liquid chromatography and bioprocessing listings cover both analytical-scale separations and process-scale equipment sized for biomanufacturing.

These instruments do the central work of protein purification in molecular biology, proteomics and structural biology. An FPLC system purifies recombinant proteins for crystallography and cryo-EM, isolates antibodies and enzymes for immunoassay and biochemical study, and polishes monoclonal antibodies in bioprocessing and downstream biomanufacturing. Affinity chromatography on an FPLC is the routine way to capture a His-tagged or GST-tagged target expressed in cell culture; ion-exchange and size-exclusion steps that follow it are how a purified protein reaches the homogeneity a downstream assay or a protein-protein interaction study needs. Fraction collectors and bioprocessing systems also handle nucleic acid purification and the buffer exchange steps that sit between purification stages.

The brands behind the FPLC listings

The used FPLC market here is concentrated around Cytiva, GE Healthcare, GE, Amersham Biosciences, Ge Healthcare Bio-Science. That concentration works in a buyer's favour: Cytiva and the older GE Healthcare and Amersham Biosciences ranges share a well-documented design lineage, so columns, valves and control software from one generation often carry over to another, and a used ÄKTA-family instrument can be compared against another of the same series on specification rather than guesswork. Parts for these platforms can be sourced through Questpair, and their market presence means service documentation and consumables are more available than for a rare instrument. A buyer choosing within this group is choosing between well-understood variants rather than between unknowns.

What a used FPLC system costs here

All of the current listings are used. Prices run from EUR 86 to EUR 95.000, with an average near EUR 20.828. That spread reflects the range from a single detector or fraction collector at the low end to a complete process-scale purification system at the high end, so matching the figure to the hardware means reading each listing against the method it is meant to run. Used and refurbished systems are listed below new prices, which is where most of the available FPLC hardware on the marketplace sits.