What Lascells does

Lascells is a UK-based, founder-led manufacturer of physics laboratory equipment for the education sector, founded in 1997 by physics teacher John Whitehead in Market Drayton. The company designs and produces over 300 physics apparatus products across seven categories: Electricity and Magnetism, Optics, Forces and Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Sound and Waves, Atomic and Nuclear Physics, and Mounted Components. Core products include digital instruments (ammeters, voltmeters, pressure sensors, E-field detectors), demonstration equipment (ripple tanks, electric motors, cloud chambers), and laboratory apparatus (planck's constant apparatus, speed of sound apparatus, laser reflection tanks). Products feature digital readouts, LCD displays, 4mm safety sockets, and battery-powered portability designed for both student experimentation and teacher demonstrations.

Lascells operates exclusively through a channel-partner model, with no direct sales to end customers. In the UK, products are distributed through six major educational equipment stockists: SLS Select Education, Philip Harris, Breckland Scientific, WF Education, VITTA Education, and Timstar. International sales are handled via direct contact to identify local dealers. The company has a strategic partnership with PHYWE, a German physics equipment manufacturer, to serve higher education institutions, universities, and museums globally. The firm also distributes through a partnership model offering advanced X-ray equipment from PHYWE to academic customers.

The company's revenue model is purely hardware sales through authorized resellers, with no public pricing and a 1-year warranty on all products. Customer segments are heavily weighted toward UK primary and secondary schools, with secondary segments in higher education (via PHYWE) and museums/public engagement. Marketing relies on social media, blog content targeting parents and students, and sponsorship of the PTNC educator community of 600+ physics teachers. Lascells remains privately held with no disclosed funding, no parent company, and no evidence of institutional investment, consistent with a bootstrapped, owner-operated UK manufacturing business.

Name

Lascells

Legal name

Lascells Limited

Website

https://lascells.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Lascells designs and manufactures over 300 physics laboratory apparatus products for UK schools and higher education institutions, selling exclusively through a network of educational equipment stockists and a strategic partnership with PHYWE for global university distribution.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Physics Education Equipment

NAICS

Instrument Manufacturing for Measuring and Testing Electricity and Electrical Signals (334515), Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing (334)

SIC

Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826), Electronic & Other Electrical Equipment (No Computer Equip) (3600)

akta.pro primary industry

Science & STEM Lab Equipment & Supplies (Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Makerspaces) (EDAEAIAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Instructional Equipment & Classroom Tools (Whiteboards, Lab Kits, Manipulatives) (EDAEAIAB)

Keywords

• Physics education equipment
• School laboratory apparatus
• Digital measurement instruments
• Physics teaching tools
• Scientific demonstration equipment

Headquarters

HQ city

Market Drayton

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Physics Equipment Sales: Lascells designs and manufactures physics equipment for educational institutions, selling through a network of authorized resellers. Products include digital instruments, laboratory apparatus, power supplies, measurement devices, and demonstration equipment for physics teaching across electricity, magnetism, optics, mechanics, thermodynamics, sound, waves, and atomic physics categories.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Lascells designs and manufactures over 300 physics education apparatus products from its UK factory, covering electricity and magnetism, optics, forces and mechanics, thermodynamics, sound and waves, atomic and nuclear physics, and mounted components. The company sells exclusively through a network of authorized UK resellers and a global higher-education partnership with PHYWE, supplying schools, colleges, universities, and museums.

Product overview

Lascells designs and manufactures over 300 physics education products from their UK factory, serving schools, colleges, and higher education institutions. The product portfolio centers on hands-on physics demonstration equipment across seven core categories: Digital Instrumentation (digital ammeters, voltmeters, timers, sensors), Thermodynamics (Boyles Law apparatus, Jolly Bulb, immersion heaters, thermal systems), Forces and Mechanics (Hookes Law apparatus, dynamics tracks, trolleys, scales), Optics (laser reflection tanks, ray boxes, spectral sources, polarimeters), Sound and Waves (ripple tanks, laboratory speakers, speed of sound apparatus), Atomic and Nuclear Physics (diffusion cloud chambers, Planck's constant apparatus), and Electricity and Magnetism (demonstration motors, E-field detectors, transformer coils, power supplies). Additionally, Lascells offers a partnership with PHYWE for higher education X-ray equipment. Products feature digital readouts, 4mm safety socket connectivity, battery power for portability, and are designed for both student experimentation and teacher demonstration.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Digital Boyle's Law Apparatus A self-contained digital apparatus for demonstrating Boyle's Law, featuring a 2.5ml syringe connected to a digital pressure sensor with LCD display calibrated in kPa. Detects measurable pressure changes for every 0.1ml change in volume, for school physics laboratories.
• E-Field Detector A highly sensitive electronic device for detecting small electrical charges and their polarity at a distance, featuring an LED array that indicates positive (red) or negative (blue) charge with magnitude shown by number of LEDs. Can output to voltmeter or datalogger via 4mm sockets for quantitative measurements, for school physics laboratories.
• Precision Variable Power Supply A full-specification variable power supply for school laboratories providing up to 8A regulated DC output with constant voltage regardless of load, featuring maximum voltage limiter with Allen key adjustment, digital panel meter, and automatic over-current protection at 8A. Compact 2.2kg design with integral handle.
• Digital Ammeter A digital bench meter for measuring DC current with 0 to ±10A range and 0.01A resolution, featuring auto-off circuitry to conserve battery life and LED battery indicator, housed in robust ABS/PVC case for school physics laboratories.
• Digital Voltmeter A digital bench meter for measuring DC voltage with 0 to ±20V range and 0.01V resolution, featuring safety sockets for 4mm test leads, large LCD display, and auto-off circuitry for school physics laboratories.
• Demonstration Electric Motor A ready-built fully functional demonstration motor showing essential features of a simple motor as taught in KS4 syllabus, with single rectangular coil rotating in linear magnetic field, commutator and brush arrangement, for classroom demonstration.
• Digital Jolly Bulb A digital apparatus demonstrating the relationship between temperature and pressure, featuring calibrated digital readout sensitive enough to register pressure increase from body heat when held in hand, for school physics laboratories.
• Hooke's Law Apparatus A robust apparatus for verifying Hooke's law, designed to allow students to investigate single springs and spring combinations in both series and parallel configurations, for school physics laboratories.
• Laser Reflection Tank An apparatus for exploring optical phenomena including refraction, total internal reflection, and critical angle by making laser beam paths visible in water with a scattering agent, for school physics laboratories.
• Newton Scales Bathroom-style scales calibrated in Newtons for demonstrating the relationship between mass and weight (F=mg), can be used vertically in pairs to demonstrate Newton's Third Law, for school physics laboratories.
• Precision Switched Power Supply A full-specification switched power supply for school laboratories providing up to 8A regulated DC output with constant voltage regardless of load, maximum voltage limiter, and automatic overload protection.
• Planck's Constant Apparatus An apparatus for determining Planck's constant by measuring the voltage at which LEDs of different colors begin to emit light and plotting energy input versus frequency, for school physics laboratories.
• Immersion Heater A versatile sealed immersion heater for Specific Heat Capacity experiments, rated 50W at 12V, suitable for use with calorimeter blocks and liquid vessels, for school physics laboratories.
• Laboratory Speaker A high-quality 4-inch full-range speaker mounted on metal base with standard banana jack plugs for physics demonstrations including finding the range of human hearing and wave interference, for school physics laboratories.
• Loudspeaker Kit A hands-on kit for building 10 working loudspeakers, teaching electromagnetic principles through constructing voice coils with enamelled copper wire, neodymium magnets, and paper diaphragms, for school physics classrooms.
• Speed of Sound Apparatus An apparatus containing two amplified microphones connected to control circuitry for determining speed of sound in air using time-of-flight measurement with millisecond timer or oscilloscope, for school physics laboratories.
• Ripple Tank MkIII A self-contained compact unit demonstrating wave phenomena including reflection, diffraction, refraction, and interference with built-in LED strobing synchronized with waves, featuring removable 12cm water tank with integral multi-faceted beach to eliminate unwanted reflections, for school physics laboratories.
• Diffusion Cloud Chamber A thermoelectrically cooled cloud chamber with crystal-clear glass viewing chamber for visualizing alpha and beta radiation tracks using isopropyl alcohol, self-contained with integrated power supply and LED illumination. Alpha and beta tracks visible within 5 minutes using the included thoriated tungsten source, for school physics laboratories.
• Potometer An apparatus for investigating rate of water uptake and transpiration in plants, featuring 1mm capillary tube with millimetre scale mounted on acrylic plate, for school biology and physics laboratories.
• PHYWE X-ray XR 4.0 Expert Unit, 35 kV A professional X-ray apparatus from PHYWE partnership for higher education institutions, featuring 35 kV capability for advanced physics experiments, distributed through Lascells.

Quantifiable outcome

• Alpha and beta radiation tracks visible within 5 minutes of setup
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• PTNC (Physics Teaching Notes and Comments)minorOthers · 7 July 2026Lascells sponsors PTNC, an invaluable online community for Physics Educators providing a space for teachers to share ideas, ask questions, exchange resources, and discuss challenges in teaching Physics. The community has grown to over 600 members.
• PHYWEcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLascells announced a Higher Education partnership with PHYWE, the leading German manufacturer of physics teaching equipment. The collaboration combines over 140 years of combined experience in serving the education sector, offering academics and students access to state-of-the-art educational equipment along with highest standards of support and service. PHYWE products are distributed through Lascells for higher education institutes, museums, and public engagement businesses.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• PHYWE: German manufacturer of physics teaching equipment with which Lascells has a higher-education distribution partnership. Direct peer in advanced physics lab apparatus for universities and museums.
• Hampden Model & Instrument Co. US-based manufacturer of physics teaching equipment for schools and colleges. Comparable niche competitor in physics demonstration apparatus for secondary and tertiary education.
• Edulab: UK educational science equipment supplier serving schools and colleges. Comparable UK-focused competitor in physics and general science lab apparatus.
• Philip Harris Education: Major UK educational science supplier that both resells Lascells products and offers its own laboratory equipment range. Direct competitor in school physics apparatus with overlapping UK school customer base.
• Breckland Scientific: UK-based scientific equipment distributor serving educational institutions, also a Lascells stockist. Competes in supply of physics and science lab apparatus to schools.
• Timstar: UK-based educational science equipment supplier serving schools from Shrewsbury, listed as a Lascells stockist. Competes directly in the UK secondary school physics equipment market.
• SLS Select Education: Nottingham-based UK educational equipment reseller carrying Lascells products alongside competing brands. Overlaps with Lascells in school science and physics equipment distribution.

Broad incumbents

• Vernier Software & Technology: US-based science education sensor and software company with strong digital instrumentation in physics labs. Competes in digital measurement tools and data-collection interfaces.
• PASCO Scientific: Global science education equipment manufacturer with broad physics, chemistry, and biology portfolios. Larger incumbent with overlapping digital sensors and data-logging physics products.
• 3B Scientific: Global manufacturer of medical and science education products including physics lab apparatus. Broader portfolio but overlapping in school-level physics demonstration equipment.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/lascells
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@LascellsScience
• Facebookfacebook.com/100064148735650
• Instagraminstagram.com/lascellsscience
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/lascellsltd

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lascells