Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Apparatus – Sequential work treating receptacles or stations with means...
Patent
1988-02-22
1990-05-15
Stinson, Frankie L.
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Apparatus
Sequential work treating receptacles or stations with means...
134122R, 134199, 134200, 53167, 422305, B08B 302
Patent
active
049248910
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a device that cleans and/or decontaminates, in a continuous manner, a strip of a thin film of thermoplastic material. It relates, more specifically although not exclusively so, a device for cleaning the two opposite faces of a continuous strip of film of thermoplastic material, for example a strip formed by at least one layer of a polyolefin material, such as polyethylene or polypropylene, for the purpose, among other things, of using that cleaned strip for the fabrication of flexible bags containing a perfusion liquid to be administered intravenously to a patient.
Manufacturers of films of thermoplastic material, of polyethylene for example, deliver the latter in the form of rolls having a pre-determined width. During the fabrication of those films, by extrusion for example, and during their conditioning, such as their sectioning to the desired width and their being wound on a mandrel, as well as during their transportation, their handling and their treatment, those films generally are contaminated by particles of an extrinsic nature or by fragments or particles that are generated by the films themselves.
When the web of film is to be used for the fabrication of flexible bags or pouches for containing perfusion liquids, it is important that they are free of contaminating particles. If there are particles that adhere to the film, the particles may injure the patient in that the particles could be carried along with the perfusion liquid into the circulatory system of the patients.
It is also important that the face of the film, which is in contact with the perfusion liquid, be sterile, so as to prevent germs or other possible pathogenic micro-organisms from contaminating the perfusion liquid and being carried therewith into the circulatory system of the patients.
There is known a system for cleaning and sterilizing in a continuous manner a web of film made of thermoplastic material. The web is fed through a static bath of a liquid which may be, for example, a sterilizing liquid, such as hydrogen peroxide. That known system, however, often does not satisfactorily remove all the particles that may be adhering to the film. The system includes the additional disadvantage of requiring a periodic replacement of the bath which progressively becomes loaded with particles and micro-organisms and therefore must be replaced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improved system for removing particles and other contaminants from a web of film.
It has now been discovered that the removal of the particles and other contaminating materials from a film of thermoplastic material, that is of such a nature that may be charged with static electricity and therefore attract and retain such particles can be accomplished very efficiently when there is sprayed on the film, which is moving in a given direction, a liquid in the form of jets directed opposite to the direction the film is moving. There is obtained through this method a dynamic effect that improves the removal of the particles and other contaminating materials.
It has also been discovered that, in order for the particles and other contaminating materials to be easily removed from the film without being redeposited on the film, the liquid should be sprayed over the film while the film follows a steeply inclined trajectory, if not an approximately vertical one.
The present invention, provides a device for the cleaning and/or the decontamination of a continuous strip of a film of thermoplastic material. The device comprises an enclosure inside of which a sterile air pressure is maintained and inside of which the continuous strip is moved along a sinuous trajectory around return rollers between an inlet and an outlet of the enclosure. At least one approximately horizontal ramp, equipped with nozzles, is mounted inside the enclosure. Accordingly, it is possible to spray on one face of the strip, jets of a cleaning and/or decontaminating liquid. The liquid loaded with contaminating particles
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Desmet Bernard
Soubrier Pierre
Baxter International Inc.
Flattery Paul C.
Schaafsma Paul E.
Schnurr Mary J.
Stinson Frankie L.
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