How to Dry Pharmacy Machinery

Drying pharmacy machinery requires precision in a controlled environmental setting. Freeze drying, also known as lyophilization, involves extracting water and other solvents from a frozen material by sublimation and desorption. The pharmaceutical and biotech industries prefer this method to dry equipment. Freeze drying takes three major steps, which include freezing, primary drying and secondary drying.

Things You'll Need

• Pharmacy equipment
• Freeze dryer machine

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Instructions

• 1

  Place the pharmacy equipment inside the freezer. Thoroughly freeze the materials at a temperature well below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep the machinery frozen anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days. When the freezing period is longer, a thicker cake forms on the material.

• 2

  Remove the equipment from the freezer, then place it inside chamber of the freeze dryer machine. The chamber should be completely dry and clean before beginning the primary drying process.

• 3

  Set the machine for sublimation mode, which is the primary drying process. The shelf temperature should drop as low as -30 degrees Celsius.

• 4

  Press the "On" or "Start" button on the freeze dryer machine. The vacuum pump will automatically come on after its threshold temperature is reached. Difficult products can take a full 72 hours to dry.

• 5

  Increase the shelf temperature to 20 degrees Celsius. The higher temperature helps remove the ionically bound water or moisture. Press the "On" or "Start" button to begin the desorption process. This is the second drying process.