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Sterilized items that are at risk of bursting or deforming due to heating and re-cooling or the pressure differences caused by these processes can be safely sterilized using the hot water sprinkling and spray cooling function of Systec autoclaves. This ensures reliable inactivation without causing damage to the items to be sterilized.
Fast sterilization and recooling for increased efficiency
Autoclaves are often used to inactivate fragile or deformable items to be sterilized. These include, for example, cans made of thin sheet metal, plastic bottles and bags or large glass bottles. Plastic in particular is susceptible to deformation during heating due to its poor thermal conductivity.
Hot water sprinkling and spray cooling with simultaneous application of support pressure in the autoclave interior in Systec appliances effectively minimizes the risk of damage to such sterilization items, while at the same time speeding up the entire sterilization process.
Active spray cooling also reduces the re-cooling time of the items to be sterilized by over 90 % compared to self-cooling. This means that batch times can be shortened to the same extent, as less time is required to cool the items to be sterilized.
How sterilization and re-cooling by hot water sprinkling and spray cooling works
With a hot water sprinkling system, as technically implemented in the Systec autoclaves of the VX/VE, DX/DE and HX series, the sterilized items in the autoclave are sprayed with heated deionized water (alkali concentration ≤ 0.02 mmol/l, conductivity at 20 °C, 0.1 - 15 μS/cm) from the integrated two (for chamber diameters 400 to 740 mm) or three (chamber diameter 1.000 mm) sprinkler lances (using the Systec H series as an example). The water is constantly circulated via a circulation pump.
This ensures continuous, gentle and uniform sprinkling of the vessel surfaces and temperature distribution within the vessels. A supporting pressure generated simultaneously by compressed air (quality ≤ class 4 according to DIN ISO 8573) ensures that the pressure built up inside the sterilized items can be balanced to prevent deformation and bursting. The pressure applied corresponds to a preselectable factor between 1, 2 or 3 times the pressure measured in the sterilization container and is limited to 5 bar / 500 kPa absolute pressure.
During subsequent recooling by spray cooling, the demineralized water used for sterilization is passed through a plate heat exchanger and sprayed onto the sterilized items via the sprinkler lances when cooled. Support pressure is used to prevent deformation and bursting.
Gentle material heating and cooling with deionized water for shorter waiting times between autoclaving processes
The combination of sterilization by hot water sprinkling and active recooling with deionized water with simultaneous support pressure is the perfect sterilization variant for sterilization items made of fragile or deformable material. This not only guarantees perfect sterilization results, but also a significantly shorter recooling time, which is a clear advantage over self-cooling, especially when working with large numbers of batches.
If you have any questions on the subject of "hot water sprinkling with spray cooling" or the correct sterilization of sterilized items, please contact us!
