Peristaltics put paid to cleaning problems
15 Jan 2000
One of the many problems presented to pharmaceuticals companies by the stringent requirements of the US FDA regulations is the need to carry out fully validated cleaning procedures on process plant, including pilot plant reactors. At its pilot plant operation in Cumbria, Scotia Pharmaceuticals has overcome part of this problem by the simple expedient of discarding, rather than cleaning, part of its plant.
The part in question is the silicone or Viton tubing used in the Watson-Marlow peristaltic pumps that dose critical ingredients into the reactor. Pilot plant manager Keith Brewster specified the pumps because he realised it was much more cost-effective to discard the tubing used in the pumps after each run, rather than have to perform and validate a lengthy cleaning procedure each time.
A leading biotechnology company, Scotia wanted a pump that could be easily cleaned and would not cause cross-contamination both achieved through the design of Watson-Marlow's peristaltics, in which the pumped fluid does not at any time come into contact with the pump mechanism.
According to Watson-Marlow, the 500, 600 and 700 series pumps used on Scotia's pilot plant have other benefits as well. There are no valves, diaphragms or seals to fail, and their variable speed drives and wide selection of tube sizes enable feed rates for a number of processes to be optimised easily.
