Scientific Glassblowing
Kevin Teaford started his scientific glassblowing career in 1992 at the Westinghouse-Hanford Co. After three and half years in Research & Development Kevin accepted a position with Farlow¹s Scientific Glassblowing in northern California. At Farlow's he learned of many new types of glassware found in the medical and scientific production industry. In 1999, he secured a position at Precision Glassblowing of Colorado. While at Precision he was introduced to many new aspects of production style glassblowing, which included fabrication of large diameter Pyrex apparatus and the introduction of larger Quartz fabrication. In 2002 Kevin accepted a position at University of Utah. Kevin is a member of the American Scientific Glassblowing Society, and has attended many symposia since 1992.
Kevin Teaford is the recipient of the prestigious 2017 Helmut E. Drecshel Award from the American Scientific Glassblowing Society. This is one of the society’s highest awards and is given in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the organization.
Kevin Teaford also recieved the 2023 J. Allen Alexander Award. This award is only given to a select group of members in recognition of their outstanding contributions in furthering the aims and ideals of the The American Scientific Glassblowers Society.
The U of Utah Scientific Glassblowing shop can meet all of your needs for repair, modification and custom design of scientific borosilicate (Pyrex) or quartz apparatus. The glass shop is readily available for consultation on design work and can perform on-site, "in-situ" repair work in your lab as well as all in-shop services.
The glass shop is happy to manufacture standard catalog glass apparatus and components. The shop has many satisfied customers that have experienced substantial cost savings this way.
Services Available
- Cutting and drilling holes in glass.
- Encapsulation of samples under vacuum or backfilled to your specifications with inert gases.
- Coils.
- Glass to metal seals.
- Lapping wheel for (grinding) flat surfaces such as bell jars.
Large Inventory Available
- Borosilicate (pyrex) and quartz tubing (limited stock in quartz).
- Standard taper ground glass joints.
- Standard spherical ground glass joints.
- Threaded glass components.
- O-ring joints.
- Quartz to Pyrex graded seals.
- Borosilicate glass stopcocks.
- Ground glass stopcocks
- Glass stopcocks using a teflon plug (used on chromatography columns)
- Hi-vacuum valves (used on vacuum manifolds)
- Filter discs/cylinders, made of fritted glass
Contact
The Glassblowing Shop is located in room 1405 (southwest ground level) in the Henry Eying Building.
Shop Hours
1:00 to 3:00pm Open daily for Consultations, Design work and dropping off/picking up glassware.
*****Please call before stopping by, to confirm I am in. My job sometimes takes me to other labs/buildings, so feel free to call ahead of time to make sure I am in.
If the times above don’t work, please contact me through email to kteaford@chem.utah.edu to set up an appointment.
Mailing Address
Scientific Glassblowing Shop
315 South 1400 East, Room 2020
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0850
Kevin Teaford
Scientific Glassblower
(801) 581-7592
email: kteaford@chem.utah.edu