What is the use of compressed air in pharmaceutical companies?
Compressed air has many key uses in pharmaceutical companies. It mainly serves power support, process control and environmental maintenance of the production process. It can be divided into the following scenarios:
1. Device drive and automation control
As a clean power source, compressed air is widely used to drive various pneumatic equipment, such as:
- Filling machine, tablet press: Control the sealing of bottle caps and pressing of tablets through the air cylinder.
- delivery system: Drive conveyor belts or sorting devices to realize automated transfer of raw materials, intermediate products and finished products.
- valves and actuators: Control pipeline opening and closing and flow adjustment to ensure accurate execution of process parameters.
2. Process media supply
In specific production links, compressed air directly participates in the process:
- Fermentation and synthesis: Introduce sterile compressed air into the bioreactor or synthesis kettle to provide oxygen for microbial growth or chemical reactions.
- Drying and granulating: Blow away the wet particles through air flow and dry them (such as fluidized bed drying process), or assist in mixing the powder evenly.
3. Cleaning and aseptic maintenance
Pharmaceutical companies have extremely high requirements for environmental cleanliness, and compressed air is used for:
- Equipment purging: Remove powder residues and microorganisms on equipment surfaces or pipes to avoid cross-contamination.
- positive pressure maintenance: In sterile workshops or critical operating areas (such as filling rooms), compressed air is used to form a positive pressure environment to prevent the intrusion of external pollutants.
4. Packaging and Quality Control
- packaging molding: In bottling, aluminum-plastic packaging and other links, compressed air is used to blow blow molding packaging materials or auxiliary sealing.
- testing equipment: Some quality inspection instruments (such as gas chromatographs and particle size analyzers) require compressed air as the medium or power.
5. System design and compliance requirements
To meet pharmaceutical industry regulations (such as GMP), compressed air needs to be treated:
- filtration and drying: Microorganisms and particulate matter are removed through high-efficiency filters, and moisture is controlled by drying equipment (dew point temperature is usually ≤-40℃).
- regular monitoring: Test the microorganisms, oil content, particulate matter and other indicators of compressed air to ensure compliance with production quality standards.
summary: Compressed air is an indispensable public project in the production process of pharmaceutical companies. Its application runs through equipment driving, process control, environmental maintenance and quality control, and requires strict treatment and monitoring to meet the cleanliness and safety of drug production. Sexual requirements.
