Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids – Apparatus – Vacuum
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-05
2002-10-29
Lazarus, Ira S. (Department: 3749)
Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids
Apparatus
Vacuum
C034S284000, C034S287000, C034S288000, C034S290000, C034S291000, C034S297000, C034S384000, C034S578000, C034S176000, C034S179000, C034S181000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06470592
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for freeze-drying of foodstuffs, medicaments, etc. to obtain such products in their desiccated form by first adjusting the starting materials for such foodstuffs, medicaments, etc. in their liquid form, and then freeze-drying such liquid material into the final desiccated powder products. This invention is also concerned with a system for attaining such freeze-drying of foodstuffs, medicaments, and so forth.
b) Description of Prior Arts
Conventionally, the system for freeze-drying (or lyophilizing) foodstuffs, medicaments, etc., by which the materials therefor in liquid form are subjected to freeze-drying through sublimation heat supplied under the vacuum condition, is usually constructed in such a manner that the material to be dried is filled, in its liquid form, in a desiccating vessel such as tray, and the like, then such tray with the material to be dried is placed in a desiccating chamber of a freeze-drying device provided with a stack of shelves, thereafter the material is freeze-dried in bulk form, and, after drying, the material as dried is comminuted by a pulverizer, the final product in powder form being collected into a receptacle.
More concretely, this conventional freeze-drying apparatus is made up of the following elements, taking a currently implemented apparatus for the production of medicaments, as an example. That is to say, referring to
FIG. 1
of the accompanying drawing, a block enclosed by a double-dot-and-dash line (I) designates an apparatus A for adjusting starting materials, which performs a step of adjusting the starting materials into a liquid form (it being understood that, throughout this description, ‘slurry’ will also be included in this category of liquid material). This materials adjusting apparatus A is constituted with a plurality of mutually juxtaposed blending tanks a, a, . . . and an adjusting tank b. A predetermined quantity of such starting material as weighed is poured by human hands into the blending tanks a, a, . . . , together with a solvent (distilled water) through the charging port
10
of each of them, followed by operating agitators
11
,
11
, . . . installed in the blending tanks a, a, . . . by means of motors
12
,
12
, . . . equipped on each agitator, thereby effecting blending of the materials, as charged, through agitation to cause the starting materials and the solvent to be made into a liquid material. This liquid material is then charged into the adjusting tank b through a charging port
20
of the adjusting tank b by human hands, while, at the same time, a predetermined quantity of the solvent (distilled water) is further poured therein. Subsequently, an agitator
21
installed in the adjusting tank b is operated by a motor
22
to blend the materials in liquid form by agitation to adjust it into the liquid material of a predetermined composition. As soon as this adjusting operation is completed, the liquid material as adjusted is let out of the discharge port
23
at the bottom of the adjusting tank b by the action of a pump P connected to the discharge port
23
through a pipeline. It should be noted that this liquid material as adjusted is transferred to the subsequent step of ‘distributive pouring’ through a pipeline c provided with a sterilized filter and connected to the discharge port of the pump P.
Again, in reference to
FIG. 1
, a block enclosed by a double-dot-and-dash line (II) designates the distributive pouring (or feeding) apparatus B which performs the distributive pouring step to distribute the liquid material as adjusted in the abovementioned step of adjusting the materials. This distributive pouring apparatus is constituted with a distributive pouring tank d connected to the downstream side of the abovementioned pipeline c; a pipeline
31
for the distributive pouring, connected to its discharge port through a sterilized filter
30
; and a loading device (not shown in the drawing) which is disposed below the discharge port
32
of the pipeline
31
so as to sequentially carry into, or carry out, a desiccating vessel e, such as tray, etc., into which the liquid material to be discharged from the distributive pipeline
31
is poured; and so forth.
In this figure of drawing, a block surrounded by a double-dot-and-dash line (III) refers to a freeze-drying apparatus C to perform the freeze-drying of the liquid material. This freeze-drying apparatus comprises a freeze-drying device f with stack of shelves, which functions to introduce the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . , each being filled with the liquid material, into the desiccating chamber for its freeze-drying. In the front face
40
of the storage chamber for the freeze-drying device f, there is formed, in a freely openable and closable manner, an opening
41
, through which the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . are introduced into, or taken out of, the freeze-drying apparatus. Further, in the front face side of the opening
41
, there is provided the loading apparatus (not shown in the drawing) for performing the introduction and removal of the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . , each being filled with the liquid material. In addition, an isolating device or an isolator (not shown in the drawing) for preventing contamination is provided between the blocks (II) and (III).
In the same drawing, a block surrounded by a double-dot-and-dash line (IV) designates a crushing and comminuting apparatus D which performs a step of crushing and pulverizing the desiccated product (in bulk) from the liquid material which has been subjected to the freeze-drying in the desiccating chamber
40
of the freeze-drying device f. This pulverizing apparatus D is constituted with a comminuting device g made up of a continuous series of: a power mill
51
to receive therein a bulk of the liquid material solidified in the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . through a hopper
50
; a jet mill
52
for comminuting the crushed product; and a cyclone
53
which separates the comminuted product discharged from the jet mill
52
into powder and air. At the lower discharge port of the cyclone
53
, there is disposed a receptacle h for receiving thereinto the powder product to be taken out of the discharge port. Further, in the vicinity of the hopper
50
of the comminuting device g, there is provided a loading device (not shown in the drawing), or a feeder device, for throwing into the hopper
50
, the dried product which is solidified in the interior of the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . , into which the material to be dried has been transported.
In the same drawing, too, a block surrounded by a double-dot-and-dash line (V) designates a washing and sterilizing apparatus E for washing and sterilizing the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . which are used by filling the liquid material therein and loaded in the freeze-drying device f The washing and sterilizing device is constructed with the washing device i for washing the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . , and the sterilizing device j for sterilizing the desiccating vessels as washed. The loading apparatus (not shown in the drawing) is disposed at each of the charging ports and the take-out ports of the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . .
Thus, the final powder product is obtained by and through each of these blocks, i.e., the material adjusting step where the liquid material is adjusted by the material adjusting device A; distributive pouring (or feeding) step where the liquid material as adjusted in the preceding step is distributively fed into the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . which have been sterilized in the sterilizing step so as to fill the material in each of these vessels; the desiccating step where the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . filled with the liquid material are placed in the freeze-drying apparatus for freeze-drying of the liquid material; and the crushing (or grinding) step where the dried products (in bulk form) from the liquid material solidified in the desiccating vessels e, e, . . . are thrown into the comminuting device g to comm
Akimoto Hiromiti
Sunama Ryouji
Browdy and Neimark PLLC
Kyowa Vacuum Engineering, Ltd.
Lazarus Ira S.
Rinehart K. B.
LandOfFree
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