Laboratories are the buyers at CISILE, and they come in four kinds — research institutes, universities, third-party testing and certification bodies, and corporate R&D centres — for instruments, consumables and the engineering that puts both to work.

The range runs from analytical and testing instruments through optical and electro-optical systems, life science and microbiological analysers and metrology equipment to chemical reagents, reference materials, laboratory furniture and the information systems that manage a lab, with a zone for fully automated laboratories and a section for domestically developed high-end instruments.