Autoclave Sealing Parts Withstand Four Months' Aggressive In-Situ Testing

Autoclaves are widely used to sterilise equipment with high pressure saturated steam at temperatures of 121˚C or more. These conditions can be maintained for 15 to 20 minutes, depending upon the size of the system load and the contents. Pressurised, high temperature steam is, however, one of the most aggressive operating environments, but this is necessary to achieve the high level of operating sterility and purity within the autoclave. In between system loads, autoclaves are also subject to continuous cleaning cycles at high pressure/temperature steam conditions.

Typical autoclave applications include pharmaceuticals, microbiology, medicine, veterinary and mycology sciences, together with dentistry and general laboratories. A growing application covers the pre-disposal treatment and sterilisation of waste material, including pathogenic hospital waste to neutralise potentially infectious agents.

Owing to such challenging applications, it is of paramount importance that autoclave components withstand the operating conditions. Autoclaves can contain in excess of 200 seals that need to maintain their performance in hot pressurised saturated steam as well as be FDA and USP Class VI compliant. The DuPont Kalrez 6230 perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) seals have been developed to meet such requirements while providing excellent sealing qualities to comply with modern pharmaceutical processes.

These seals are available from the UK authorised distributor Dichtomatik and reduce extractables to trace levels while providing excellent steam cycling resistance up to 260˚C. Where in-situ tests have been conducted with saturated steam at 4 bar pressure and 140˚C temperature, the Kalrez 6230 seal parts performed well over a four month test duration of eight hours per day, five days per week. At the end of the test period, the seals exhibited little or no cracks and only minor compression set when compared with competitive perfluoroelastomer (FFKM and FKM) materials.

Dichtomatik Ltd, +44 1332 524401, kalrez@dichtomatik.co.uk, www.dichtomatik-kalrez.co.uk.