离心机主要用于将悬浮液中的固体颗粒与液体分开；或将乳浊液中两种密度不同，又互不相溶的液体分开（例如从牛奶中分离出奶油）；它也可用于排除湿固体中的液体，例如用洗衣机甩干湿衣服；特殊的超速管式分离机还可分离不同密度的气体混合物；利用不同密度或粒度的固体颗粒在液体中沉降速度不同的特点，有的沉降离心机还可对固体颗粒按密度或粒度进行分级。
The centrifuge is mainly used to separate the solid particles and liquid in the suspension; or separate the two immiscible liquids with different densities in the emulsion (for example, cream is separated from milk); it can also be used to remove the liquid in the wet solid, for example, use the washing machine to dry the wet clothes; the special overspeed tube separator can also separate the gas mixture with different densities; use different Some settling centrifuges can also classify solid particles according to their density or particle size.