Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Apparatus – With means to movably mount or movably support the work or...
Patent
1989-10-16
1990-09-25
Skaggs, H. Grant
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Apparatus
With means to movably mount or movably support the work or...
134132, 134157, 19880314, 414219, B08B 300
Patent
active
049586491
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an apparatus for treating articles or objects with a gaseous and/or liquid medium. More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus for treating a plurality of mutually similar objects or articles simultaneously, and particularly, but not exclusively, to an apparatus for washing and/or sterilizing various kinds of articles intended for use in the food production and processing industry and the pharmaceutical industry, e.g. such articles as stoppers and/or capsules, including caps, which are intended for subsequent use in sealing such containers as bottles, cans, flasks, hollow tubes, under sterile conditions. The invention also relates to such use of the inventive apparatus.
When bottles are filled with preparations which are intended to be sterile when used, for instance pharmaceutical preparations and preparations intended for infusion, the bottles are preferably sealed with sterile stoppers and/or capsules, caps. When the filled bottles cannot suitably be heat-sterilized, because the preparation concerned is unable to tolerate heat, the preparation may be sterilized initially and then poured into initially sterile containers under sterile conditions. When adopting this procedure, it is absolutely necessary that the stoppers, capsules or caps used to seal the containers are themselves sterile when sealing said containers. The bottles are normally sealed with the aid of both stoppers and capsules, the latter protecting the stoppers against contamination.
Before sealing a bottle with a sterile stopper in a machine intended herefor, it is necessary to pass the stopper through a number of treatment stages. For instance, it is suitable to sort the stoppers for the purpose of removing those stoppers which are wrongly dimensioned or deformed. The stoppers are also washed and sterilized, normally with hot water and steam under high pressure, at a temperature of at least 120.degree. C., so as to ensure that all contaminating microorganisms and spores are killed.
Furthermore, it is necessary to position the stoppers in a suitable stopper-positioning device, prior to introducing the stoppers into the bottle sealing apparatus.
The stoppers are particularly sensitive to mechanical manipulating forces during the sterilizing process, since the rubber material from which the stoppers are composed is relatively soft at high temperatures.
All open handling of the sterilized stoppers creates a risk of re-contaminating the stoppers with microorganisms and spores.
A number of stopper and/or capsule washing and sterilizing apparatus are known to and used in the art. These known apparatus, however, are all encumbered with a number of drawbacks. For instance, if a stopper handling plant is to have a sufficiently high capacity, the stopper and/or capsule washing and sterilizing apparatus used in conjunction therewith will often be extremely space consuming, complicated and expensive. Neither has it been possible with known apparatus to maintain the positions of the stoppers or capsules and caps during the washing and sterilizing process up to the point at which stoppering and/or capsulating of the bottles has been completed, and consequently it has been necessary to position the stoppers in a subsequent stage, therewith incurring the aforesaid risk of mechanical damage to the stoppers and microbial contamination of the stoppers or capsules. Another drawback is that it is not always possible to wash and sterilize the stoppers under sufficiently gentle conditions which will ensure that the stoppers and capsules will be protected from mechanical damage during the process.
The aforementioned drawbacks are eliminated by means of the present invention, which provides a stopper or capsule (cap) washing and sterilizing apparatus of considerable capacity while requiring only a small amount of space and which is of simple construction and therewith relatively inexpensive. The apparatus enables the stoppers or capsules to be handled gently both before, during and after the washing and sterilizing pr
REFERENCES:
patent: 2119191 (1938-05-01), Wilkinson et al.
patent: 3292775 (1966-12-01), White
patent: 4536121 (1985-08-01), Stewart et al.
Dixon Keith L.
Kabivitrum AB
Skaggs H. Grant
LandOfFree
Apparatus for treating articles with a gaseous and/or liquid med does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Apparatus for treating articles with a gaseous and/or liquid med, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus for treating articles with a gaseous and/or liquid med will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-324284