Howorth Air Technology has recently delivered a contained reactor charging system to a global pharmaceutical manufacturing company to improve the process in accordance with REACH Regulations, where the process is registered as a “strictly controlled” intermediate requiring a high integrity closed containment system.
Following an extensive design and mock-up phase with the customer the final isolator included among its key features, a chamber that will hold up to five product kegs or product bags. A roller track was provided to aid keg handling as well as an integrated keg rotation system with a hinged mechanism for when charging bags. It also has a product feed hopper and an outlet slide gate valve.
An external vacuum lifter was also incorporated to aid manual handling of the kegs.
The charging system was designed with a nitrogen purged environment and included an oxygen monitoring system due to the volatile nature of the product being handled.
The charging system's C22 (Nickel-Chromium-Molybdenum-Tungsten alloy) construction throughout provides superior corrosion resistance, says the manufacturer.