Computer-processing equipment development

The advent of the laser has made the generation of diffraction patterns by a suspension of fine particles a relatively easy task. At the same time, the rapid development of computer-processing equipment and specialized photocells has made it possible to process the information in a group diffraction pattern to generate the particle size distribution of the fine particles in suspension. One of the first commercially available... 

Computer modelling provides powerful and convenient tools for the quantitative analysis of fluid dynamics and heat transfer in non-Newtonian polymer flow systems. Therefore these techniques arc routmely used in the modern polymer industry to design and develop better and more efficient process equipment and operations. The main steps in the development of a computer model for a physical process, such as the flow and deformation of polymeric materials, can be summarized as ... 

Increasing attention is being given to developing methods to predict failure rate data for process equipment and systems. Such methods are beginning to appear in published literature. These methods include correlations, factored estimation procedures, and analogies to predict equipment failure rates. They are desirable because they offer efficient means of providing equipment failure rate data for risk assessments, and they can be conveniently incorporated into computer software. 

Derived from standard desktop printers, drop-on-demand techniques, such as electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing, solid freeform fabrication (SFF), or piezoelectric inkjet printing, are among a few notable examples of rapid prototyping techniques that have been developed to pattern biomaterials. With the incorporation of a user friendly computer interface, these techniques have been employed to process a number of multiplexed, biomaterial constructs without the use of masks, stamps, or any other time consuming processing equipment. The design of such constructs with minimal feature sizes in the microliter to picoliter resolution has been demonstrated and will be discussed below. 

Most basic validation activities within the cGMP pilot plant are identical to those expected in practice in a manufacturing facility. A validation master plan should be developed that addresses the design specifications and qualification, installation qualification (IQ), operational qualification (OQ), and performance qualification (PQ) of all major utility systems, process equipment, and computer control systems. Installation and commissioning data should be retained as part of an engineering documentation package. A workable... 

For large facilities, internally developed or commercially available computer software has been found useful for the engineering support staff in scheduling process equipment and space for development, mainte-nance,calibration, and validation activities. ... 

The R D activities for the process and equipment developments will be performed at prototypical conditions based on a high pressure and temperature and metallic-based equipment. On the other hand, a dynamic simulation computer code to analyse the transient state of an advanced SI process will be developed by 2009. This computer code will be applied for the dynamic analysis of the pilot and demo scale SI facilities. 

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