A laboratory centrifuge is a piece of laboratory equipment, driven by a motor, which spins liquid samples at high speed. There are various types of centrifuges, depending on the size and the sample capacity.

Like all other centrifuges, laboratory centrifuges work by the sedimentation principle, where the centripetal acceleration is used to separate substances of greater and lesser density

There are various types of centrifugation:
Differential centrifugation, often used to separate certain organelles from whole cells for further analysis of specific parts of cells
Isopycnic centrifugation, often used to isolate nucleic acids such as DNA
Sucrose gradient centrifugation, often used to purify enveloped viruses and ribosomes, and also to separate cell organelles from crude cellular extracts

There are different types of laboratory centrifuges:

Micro centrifuges
(devices for small tubes from 0.2 ml to 2.0 ml (micro tubes), up to 96 well-plates, compact design, small footprint; up to 30,000 g)

Clinical centrifuges
(devices used for clinical applications like blood collection tubes, low-speed devices)

Multipurpose benchtop centrifuges
(devices for a broad range of tube sizes, high variability, big footprint)

Stand alone centrifuges
(heavy devices like the ultracentrifuge)

Many centrifuges are available with (refrigerated device) or without cooling function.