Sterilization Stage

After preconditioning, the product is processed in a chamber during what is referred to as the sterilization cycle. A chamber is a sealed vessel in which the control system processes product with EO gas according to a user defined cycle. Exhaust from the chamber vacuum system is taken to an EO scrubber to comply with safety and environmental standards.

A typical cycle goes through several phases:

• Start-up ensures sterilization chamber and utilities equipment are under acceptable conditions
• Initial vacuum
• Leak check verifies chamber is hermetically sealed
• Steam inject
• Dynamic conditioning
• EO injection and exposure
• EO dwell period maintains gas within the chamber
• Successive vacuum cycles, each relieved with dry nitrogen, dilute the EO concentrations and remove residue (referred to as “washes”)
• Air In-bleed