A Large Biopharmaceutical customer had several existing wash racks for their parts washing machine. They calculated that they were only loading the machine to 30% of its capacity every load. This was mainly because the existing OEM racks were rigid in their design and had fixed positions for all parts. If a part was not available on a particular day the load would still be ran. Sometimes an individual part needed to be washed and the only way to do it was to run the full cycle with this one part on a rack. This was hugely inefficient and expensive as each cycle consumed up to 1000L of Water for Injection (WFI) and detergent.

The Approach

TEG understood immediately that the key was flexibility. But that every part having a fixed wash location was still very important for operations and for validation purposes. So with over 400 parts to consider and loads to optimise TEG went onsite and 3D laser scanned and modelled up all of the customer’s parts, identified the quantities and likely groupings. With this information we set out to design a rigid and flexible washing rack system.

The Results

Modules! Each ‘Main Rack’ contained interchangeable modules (‘Sub Racks’) and accessories that washed a specific group of parts. These Sub racks and accessories were easily rolled on and off the main rack to allow the customer to tailor the load to their needs on a given day.

To achieve this, TEG developed all of the designs for these modules and performed a Computation Fluid Dynamic simulation of all sub racks to ensure that they all consumed the same volume of water at the same pressure, thus ensuring repeatable performance from all racks on every load configuration.

This system enabled our customer to reach an average of 94% utilisation of the washer racks, reducing the number of wash cycles ran per week and saving thousands of dollars per day on WFI and Detergents.

Another benefit to the customer is that for any additional parts that may be added in the future is easily introduced with a new interchangeable accessory.

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A Large Biopharmaceutical customer had a need to wash one hundred stainless steel ¼” beads in 4kg batches daily. Their previous attempts included manual washing and automated washing. But the results they were having were very inconsistent. The customer wanted to purchase a new automated washer to solve this.

The Approach

The customer approached TEG, requesting assistance with the User Requirement Specification (URS) for a new washer. TEG does not supply Washer Machines. However, using our experience of these host machines in the field, we reviewed the shortlist that the customer presented and gave our objective and independent feedback on which washer would be most suitable for this application based upon Chamber Volume, Pump Pressure, Instrumentation, and other features.

The customer acquired the automated washer and tasked TEG with developing the washing strategy for stainless steel beads. This involved several physical prototypes and testing in our dedicated R&D Facility. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were used to calculate pressure/velocity and water distribution within the wash racks.

A test protocol for Riboflavin Coverage Testing was developed and agreed with the customer which would be used as a basis for determining whether the racks were deemed a success or not.

The Results

TEG Developed custom ‘Bead Pots’ and arranged them on a wash rack to get the maximum amount washed per wash cycle. These Bead pots were designed for operations loading, unloading and for optimal turbulent water flow through them to get full coverage of the four thousand beads per pot.

By optimising the water flow/pressure and velocity through the rack, we successfully washed twenty bead pots per wash cycle. Which was 80,000 beads every two hours!

The riboflavin testing and overall project was very successful. The automated washing now reduces the inconsistencies previously experienced with the manual washing and actually eliminates some of the steps in the previous washing process.

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