Pharmaceutical Rotating Load Sterilizers

Today’s pharmaceutical market very often requires rotating load sterilizers. These units are based on conventional sterilization principles (saturated steam or counterpressure methods, such as superheated water spray and steam-air mixtures), but the load is rotated throughout the process at an adjustable speed (1 to 10 rpm), intermittently, and (if required) in alternating directions. This rotation may be used for various reasons, but the three most frequent ones are:

• To maintain the stability and homogeneity of suspensions or emulsions that, mainly due to the sterilization temperature, would tend to sepa¬rate out.
  • FEDEGARI has specialized in the manufacture of these machines by also drawing on its decades of experience in the construction of autoclaves with rotating drums for the complete treatment of elastomeric closures and similar devices.
• To provide the best possible testing of ampoule tightness with fast post-sterilization vacuum.
  • It is know that this method provides its maximum effectiveness when the “cracks” of the ampoules are below the level of the solution. Load rotation is the ideal method to achieve this condition, regardless of the location of the defects on the ampoules.
• To sterilize heat-sensitive products at a high temperature for a very short time.
  • Obviously, in order to achieve this result effectively, the product heating/cooling rates must be very high and uniform. Rotation, by stirring the product, indeed facilitates the penetration/removal of the heat into/from the product, especially if the product is dense and viscous.