Telstar integrates tech for on-line monitoring of global batch product temps

Telstar, provider of equipment solutions, has announced the integration of its soft-sensor temperature monitoring system in the GMP industrial freeze-dryers with automatic loading/unloading systems.

The company’s Lyometrics technique is a non-invasive way of monitoring and measuring interface temperature during primary drying under developmental or full production conditions. By using a soft sensor technology the system does not require physical probes, as is the case with more classical temperature gauges.

These physical probes may have some drawbacks. Telstar reports that their presence within the vials can modify the process, and may also influence the stopper position and consequently the drying conditions in comparison to neighbouring vials, which do not contain probes. In addition, physical size and location of the probes within the vial will afford limitations on the measurements of temperature. The new system, however, offers online monitoring of the global batch temperature during the primary drying, states Telstar.

Furthermore, Lyometrics can obtain information related to the ice temperature at the sublimation front, one of the most critical parameters in freeze-drying processes. The new software system installed within the control system of a freeze dryer enables the determination of the average sublimation interface temperature of an entire product batch.

The Lyometrics system, fully developed by Telstar, is applicable to production environments and is particularly useful in situations where automation and physical barriers make the use of physical probes impractical.