Mixing Solution Bowl Stainless Steel, 20cc to 400cc

What a mixing solution bowl is

A solution bowl holds a fluid. That needs no page until you try a kitchen bowl for it, and then the difference shows up at once: a kitchen bowl flares outward at the top. That is right for getting a whisk in and wrong on a tray, because a flared wall throws its contents at the first knock and takes more table than its capacity needs.

Google’s own answer puts that in its second sentence and it is the only design fact in the whole answer: a surgical bowl keeps a steeper wall than a household basin, so it contains the fluid and keeps a predictable footprint. We will not print an angle, because our record carries four capacities and four dimensions and no wall angle, and a number we cannot source is a number we do not publish.

What we can give you is the pair of figures that decides the purchase. The 20 cc bowl is 40 mm across and 20 deep; the 400 cc is 110 by 55. Both are measured and both are in our own size list.

The job list is short and real. Saline or sterile water to irrigate a wound. Chlorhexidine or iodine to prep skin, with the swab worked against the wall of the bowl rather than the bottom. A local anesthetic drawn up and parked. Sutures soaking. On a small eyelid or ear tray the 20 cc bowl is often the only fluid container on it.

One more thing, because the search results make it unavoidable: the words this trade uses are also the words for a kitchen, which is why a page has to say plainly which one it is about. The word bowl belongs to four other trades before it belongs to this one.

Key design features

Twice as wide as it is deep, on every size

40 by 20 mm, 60 by 30, 80 by 40, 110 by 55. Every one of our four sizes is exactly two to one, which is a proportion rather than four separate decisions. It gives the fluid somewhere to go when a swab is pushed in, and it keeps the footprint small enough that a crowded tray still has room for instruments.

Drawn from one piece

The bowl is pressed out of a single disc of sheet, so there is no joint below the rim: there is no seam for protein to dry into, which is why a drawn piece of holloware outlasts a fabricated one. Google’s answer calls the same thing seamless construction and gives the same reason, which is the one place where their description and our workshop agree word for word.

What our record does not say

Our own record for this bowl carries four capacities, four outside dimensions, a polished finish and a seamless interior with a wide rim. It does not carry a wall angle, a wall thickness or a rim profile, so this page describes none of those. Every other page selling a solution bowl states a wall angle. Ours says ask, and we will measure the batch you are buying.

Three names, one bowl

Solution bowl is the usual American supply list name. Lotion bowl is the British one. Sponge bowl turns up where the bowl is sold with the prep set rather than with the holloware, and the trade also says gallipot, which is a word for the smallest size rather than for the bowl. The FAQ below says what it means, because a lot of people look it up.

Which size to order

Four capacities, and every figure in this table is off our own size list. The price column is ours.

Where it is used

Where these go, taken from the sets this bowl is already stocked with and from the uses Google’s own answer lists. Capacity is the column that matters.

What it is not for

An open bowl with no lid and no graduations cannot do four things, and it is cheaper to read that here than to find out on a list.

How it compares with the other holloware

Four pieces in this category, and the shape tells you which one you want. The prices are ours.

Materials and finish

Every solution bowl we make is drawn from high quality medical grade stainless steel. The steel itself is made to a German specification. We do not publish a grade number. A certificate says nothing about whether the draw left the wall an even thickness, or whether the bowl still sits flat after two years on a trolley. The answer to that is in the making rather than in the alloy.

The finish is polished and the interior is seamless, which is the one thing that matters in a vessel that holds protein and then goes in a washer. A surgical stainless steel bowl takes a full steam cycle, as any piece of solid steel holloware does, and it goes through a washer disinfector with the instruments.

Caring for it

Empty and rinse it before anything in it dries. Iodine and chlorhexidine both stain steel if left to sit, and the stain lifts with a non abrasive pad while it is fresh. Wash it upside down so the water drains, and dry it before stacking: two wet bowls nested together mark each other where they touch.

No steel wool and no chlorine. Steel wool leaves iron that rusts on its own; chlorine pits the surface for good.

Ordering and wholesale

The solution bowl is made by Adas Instruments in our own workshop and sold direct, which is why the price sits where it does against the catalog houses. Order one for a single tray, or in quantity for a hospital list or a distributor line. We do OEM work under your own brand and your own item numbers. Send us a sample and we will hold a run to your pattern rather than ours. Stock items ship from our own workshop. Backorder items take 10 to 12 working days to make. Every instrument carries a three year replacement warranty against manufacturing defects. Production is controlled under an ISO 13485 quality management system.

Frequently asked questions

What is a solution bowl used for?

Holding the fluid a procedure needs beside it: saline or sterile water for irrigating, chlorhexidine or iodine for skin prep, a local anesthetic that has been drawn up, or sutures soaking. The swab is worked against the wall of the bowl rather than the bottom, which is why the wall matters.

What is the difference between a solution bowl and a mixing bowl?

The wall. A kitchen mixing bowl flares outward at the top; a solution bowl keeps its wall going up. The flare is what spills when a bowl is knocked and what makes a bowl take more table than its capacity needs. Google’s own answer draws exactly that distinction, against what it calls a standard flared household basin.

What is a gallipot?

An old apothecary word for a small ointment pot that survived in British and Commonwealth nursing for the smallest bowl on a dressing trolley. If a list asks for a gallipot it means a bowl of roughly 20 to 60 cc, so our 20 cc or 60 cc size is what to order. The word is almost unused in American hospitals, which is why this page is headed solution bowl.

What sizes does the bowl come in?

Four: 20 cc at 40 by 20 mm, 60 cc at 60 by 30, 160 cc at 80 by 40 and 400 cc at 110 by 55. The 400 cc is the largest we make. The smallest bowl we can find on an American catalog list is about seven eighths of a quart, a little over 800 cc, so this range sits below theirs rather than against it.

Can the bowl be autoclaved?

Yes. It is solid stainless steel with no joint, no plastic part and no coating, so there is nothing in it that a steam cycle can harm, and it goes through a washer disinfector with the instruments. Dry it before it is put away rather than leaving it to drain in a stack.

Related products and categories

For catching fluid off a patient rather than holding it ready, the kidney dish, which is curved along one edge for that job. To take a set of instruments through the autoclave covered, the steel sterilization box, and for a large set that has to be carried as well, the aluminum sterilization box.

The 20 cc bowl is stocked with the blepharoplasty instruments, where it is often the only fluid container on the tray. The rest of the range is under holloware and sterilization.