Drying Chamber and Shelf Assembly

The drying chamber is made of stainless steel and is usually built into the wall of a sterile room in such a way that only the chamber door is in the sterile room. Inside the chamber is the shelf assembly with the shelves on which the product is frozen and dried. The size of the chamber is determined by the size of the shelf assembly to be installed inside it the required shelf area is determined by the amount of product to be processed per production cycle. 

The following equation is used to calculate the number of vials N per shelf, or of product trays  

Length of shelves or product trays (mm) Width of shelves or product trays (mm) Vial diameter (mm). 

This means that approximately 2240 vials per square metre shelf area can be processed. 

The drying chamber is separated from the ice condenser by a valve so that while the ice condenser is being defrosted, the chamber can already be charged again. This chamber-condenser valve is used for BTM and for Pressure Rise Measurements (PRM) to determine the end of the drying process. 

---