Vial washing machines incorporated into isolator filling lines
German company Seidenader Maschinenbau, a leading manufacturer of external washing and decontamination systems for vials and ampoules, has expanded its family of DAR machines.
The new DAR concept allows integration of the equipment into isolator filling lines. Vials and ampoules filled with potent pharmaceutical products are cleaned and dried to ensure that there is no carryover of toxic material to operators in production areas, pharmacy staff, hospital personnel or doctors.
As the industry moves to filling these potent substances under special conditions including negative pressure enclosures and restricted operator access, the last element of these filling lines, a cleaning machine, needs to adapt to this concept. The DAR now can be easily integrated into isolator filling and RABS lines.
Seidenader has recently also built in a buffer system that reduces the utilities consumed and increases line efficiency as the machines do not have to be synchronised.
All machines are designed to operate under negative pressure to avoid the escape of potentially toxic materials. The air handling controls signals are connected to the PLC of the machine to stop or deactivate the machine in case of an error condition.
Large panorama glass doors enable operators to watch thorough line clearance of all zones of the machine. The segmented, plug-in change parts facilitate the handling where operators need to access the machine through gloveports. Typically, the same gloveports used in the upstream filling line are used in the DAR machine, for standardisation throughout the line. Seidenader offers a DAR design that is completely self clearing to avoid product mix-up and to facilitate line clearance.