Italvacuum’s manufacturing includes a wide range of original and patented products, which comply with the main European regulations (CE, ATEX and PED) and with the ever more severe FDA rules and cGMP norms:
Italvacuum also offers a wide range of vacuum dryer and vacuum pump accessories to meet all of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries’ needs.
CRIOX System, an international patent that counts more than 400 units operating in more than 30 countries, consists of a rotary vacuum dryer / powderer capable to total extract all types of solvents from the wet powders coming from filtering or centrifuge.
The central body is made of a double cone, characterized by soft lines without edges. During the system rotation, this structure helps the continuous revolution of the mass and allows a homogenous and delicate mixing.
The double cone shape of the rotary chamber would not be effective in itself if it did not contain inside two powerful electrical lump-breaker units – which are the peculiar characteristic of the CRIOX System – allowing for the increase of the product surface exposed to the evaporation and to enhance the mixing efficacy of the system.
The lump-breaker units applied to the double cone not only breaks the eventual pre-existing agglomerates in the wet powders thus preventing the forming of lumps, moreover they also allow for grinding and powdering during the last drying phase, limiting and in some cases avoiding the use of the mill. This helps having bulk products ready for bagging or powders with checked final particle size distribution, where the next operation is often limited to a sifting phase.
Biting in the core of the product being dried, the patented lump breakers considerably reduce the drying time and ensure very low final moisture contents and a perfect homogeneity of the dried batch. Furthermore they allow to operate with a temperature that – on the average – is much lower than in any other dryer. This is an advantage for the purity of thermo-sensitive products, more
delicate, as it avoid their chemical degradation. CRIOX is multi-product. It can be used with the widest range of possible products with crystalline or amorphous structure.
CRIOX is multi-purpose. It can also be used as an effective fast blender or homogenizer.
CRIOX is versatile and profitable: specific and patented solutions have been studied for automatic loading and unloading and also in order to wash, to clean through and to inspect the plant before changing the batch. Only few rinses with small quantities of fluid are necessary to achieve the required p.p.m. values. This means the opportunity to pass quickly from one product campaign to another, as production demands.
CRIOX is completely safe for both operators and product, for it has been designed and built in compliance with the ever more severe safety regulations and with FDA, cGMP and ATEX standards.
Equipment used in multi product plants needs first of all to be easy to clean. For a complete innercleaning, exploiting the rotation of the drying chamber and the action of the lump-breaker units, just very few rinses with very little amount of liquid are required to achieve the demanded p.p.m. values, with the advantage to have less rinse liquid to dispose of. Thanks to fast and complete
inner cleaning, CRIOX allows a quick change from one product campaign to another.
With reference to safety, inspection and disassembling are facilitated by the opening of the manhole port lid and by the unloading hopper. Besides to facilitate the carry out of the SWAB test (recommended by FDA regulations for cleaning procedures validation), Italvacuum has designed and patented a large inspection port (optional) that makes CRIOX completely accessible, thus allowing the carrying out of the various operations easily and safety.
The sealed external cladding (particle-free configuration) covering the insulation material, electric wiring and hydraulic piping makes the external cleaning very easy and effective, avoiding accumulation of product in recessed areas. For the larger size dryers this feature also allows the solution in partitioning in order to separate the clean room from the machine room.
MULTISPRAY® Cabinet Dryer consists of a main body (drying chamber) completely heated by means of a liquid circulation circuit, so as to avoid any condensation phenomena, and a series of shelves heated by means of a fluid distribution collector which guarantees heat homogeneity on all radiating plates.
MULTISPRAY® Cabinet Dryer stands out for the following main technical features:
The following two types of executions, which are suitable for every type of application and use, are
available:
Specific for valuable and delicate products, all the weld seams in this execution are rendered completely invisible by grinding and all the surfaces are mirror-finished to eliminate roughness. Besides, there are no blind corners or sharp edges, no inaccessible points that would be hard to clean. The floor of the cabinet is sloped towards the handling room in order to facilitate the removal of the washing liquid and to avoid all contacts with the machine room.
Furthermore the wide front flange and the set-back legs allow to further separate the sterile room from the technical room.
Designed and manufactured with the same specifications and high quality standards of the fixed plates model, it has been conceived to meet the requirements of a thorough washing of the drying chamber and inner plates in a very short time.
The vacuum tray dryer with extractable plates is provided with liquid-heated plates that are mounted on a frame which can be taken right out of the drying chamber to allow easy access, cleaning and inspection.
The plates-unit can easily be extracted thanks to the connexion to the heating circuit by means of two snap-fit couplings which hold the heating liquid inside the plates without loss when disconnected. It is extracted with the help of an external hydraulic trolley, completely made in stainless steel and fitted with anti-static nylon wheels which allows its handling.
This trolley allows the extraction and insertion of the plates in extreme safety, without efforts by the staff and in a very short time.
The use of external hydraulic trolley does not require the presence of rails or wheels inside the cabinet, so that it complies with the ATEX and cGMP norms.
Once the plates-unit is extracted, it can be easily and safely inspected and cleaned. This innovation minimises the risk of contamination when a switch to another product is made and makes this type of dryer particularly suitable for multiproduct applications.
Both the models allow to process delicate and valuable products and both are designed to be equipped with the new patented C.I.P. MULTISPRAY® Washing System, which is a specific ITALVACUUM technology, covered by international patents, allowing to carry out in few minutes the washing and cleaning operations of the drying chamber and of the inner shelves, preventing the operator from coming into direct contact with possible residuals of product and/or any solvent that could be found inside the dryer. Furthermore it eliminates any possibility of contamination between the clean room and the technical room.
The new C.I.P. MULTISPRAY® Fast Washing System consists of:
In the process of washing few rinsing liquid is used. In order to guarantee a minimal consumption of solvents, the heads of the C.I.P. MULTISPRAY® diffuser are made directly by Italvacuum.
The efficiency of the new C.I.P. MULTISPRAY® Fast Washing System is certificated by means of a demonstrative proof through a tracer substance (riboflavin); at the end of the proof the following documentation is normally issued:
The efficiency of the system can be increased up to 98% with the plates inside the drying room and up to 100% with the plates outside the drying room. It must be underlined that the washing operation, being automatic, is repeatable, that is the achieved result is the same from time to time.
Italvacuum, always committed to optimizing and expanding its products range, recently introduced on the market the new line of static vacuum dryers studied for laboratory scale. These dryers, manufactured with separated cells and auxiliary fittings mounted on skid, are designed for the assembly in glove box. As far as the the parts in contact with the product, the new static vacuum dryers for lab scale can be made of stainless steel AISI 316L (1.4404), AISI 904L (1.4539), ALLOY C-22, 2.4602 and Duplex.
Planex System® is a new patented technology developed in order to overcome the peculiar limits of the traditional paddle vacuum dryers equipped with concentric agitator. Planex System® is based on an innovative philosophy of working, which is especially suitable for the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Planex System® consists of a fixed cylindrical chamber with an eccentric agitator inside with two independent movements, able to rotate on its own axis and tangentially to the cylindrical chamber as well. The double combined rotation allows an optimal mixing of the product, continuously renewing the surface of the mass exposed to evaporation, covering all the volume of the vessel. In this way solvents release is facilitated and drying times are significantly reduced compared to conventional systems.
The peculiar configuration of the agitator, characterized by a diameter much smaller than the one of the drying chamber, and the double rotation also limit the mechanical and thermal stress, preventing local overheating due to friction. This enables to treat even thermo sensitive products, as it preserves their purity, avoiding degradation of the dried batch.
It must be remarked that, according to an independent analysis by Prof. M. Vanni and Eng. M. Garbero of the Material Science and Chemical Engineering Department at Turin Polytechnic, mechanical and thermal stress on the product is only one-third of that in a traditional dryer and power consumption is correspondingly about one-third lower.
Furthermore the narrow gap between the agitator profile and the wall of the drying chamber avoids deposition of the product and makes the unloading operation extremely easy and effective, being also foreseen a specific program automatically managed.
The agitator shaft has a double mechanical seal for perfect vacuum tightness and zero contamination.
An integral CIP system allows all parts in contact with the product to be washed down, and inspection is simple thanks to the large front port. The non-concentric agitator and easilydismantled inner parts facilitate swab testing. To ensure external cleanliness there is no support frame in the sterile room, but only the drying chamber flanged to the wall.
The PLANEX System® is available in volumes of 300 – 4,400 l. Loading capacity is 15-80% of the vessel volume, depending on the product.
Rotary cylindrical vacuum dryers are designed for drying, mixing and condensing operations in the manufacture of granulated plastic materials: chips, beads, slices, pellets, scraps, etc. The manufacturing specifications make these dryers especially suitable for processes where it is necessary to operate at high vacuum levels in combination with high heating temperatures, such as:
The skewed cylindrical form and the constant rotation ensure an efficient product mixing. The result is a uniform final blend in terms of both viscosity and residual humidity, which is greater than that achieved in continuous processes.
In addition, vacuum drying means elimination of oxygen and so avoiding the creation of unwanted secondary compounds or of explosive mixtures with the extracted solvents. The action on the product is very delicate and light, so that mechanical shocks are avoided, limiting the creation of fine powders, as requested for this kind of production.
Other characteristics of the rotary cylindrical vacuum dryers are the washing simplicity of the chamber as well as the simplicity of inspection and access to all the internal points of the machine. Thanks to its know-how developed along more than 70 years of experience, today Italvacuum is able to supply turn-key and bespoke systems.
Turn-key systems for every process requirement: beside each type of dryer, Italvacuum supplies also the components necessary for completing the plant:
All the components are appropriately dimensioned to meet every process requirement.
Their simple design, together with innovative technical solutions, such as the new LubriZero® system, that has set nearly to zero the non-reusable oil consumption, allowing also the use of synthetic FDA approved oils, make vacuum pumps SAURUS939 particularly suitable for the main chemical and pharmaceutical processes, such as drying, distillation, reaction and crystallization.
In case of common solvents (Methylic Alcohol, Ethylic Alcohol, Chloroform, Acetone, Ethyl Acetate, Methyl Chloride, Benzene, Toluene, Isopropylic Alcohol, Ethyl Ether, Heptane) and even the most aggressive (Hydrochloric Acid, Acetic Acid, Chlorobenzene, Dimethylformamide, Acrylonitrile, Dichloroethane, Cyclohexane, Pyridine, Dimethyl Sulfoxide, Dichloromethane), Saurus939
guarantees:
The separation of the vacuum pump from the process chamber ensures absence of contamination of the product from the lubricating oil, as certified in a report by Turin’s Politecnic, in which the phenomenon is quantitatively estimated, dispelling any doubt about the purity of the final product (uncontaminated vacuum).
In this report the flow rate of oil is calculated by solving a mass transport equation that takes into account the effects of diffusion, which moves the oil from the pump to the condenser, and of convection, which acts in the opposite way.
Three dryer-condenser-vacuum pump configurations were considered, each corresponding to the three different Saurus939 vacuum pump models VVB, VVC and VVD, with nominal inlet diameters of 40, 65 and 80 mm, respectively. In addition different vacuum levels were examined, in order to investigate all the range of working conditions from 1 to 100 mbar.
Under these conditions the mass of oil reaching the condenser in 24 hours (a typical operation time) was calculated for every vacuum level.
The obtained values were absolutely negligible and below any level of analytical detection, with an order of magnitude as low as 10-1000 g of oil. As the mass of oil molecules is in the range 10-20-10-24 g, this result means that during a drying cycle not even a single molecule of oil moves back from the pump to the condenser, and hence to the dryer.
Saurus939 complies also to ATEX norms. In its standard model, CE ex II 2 G T4, it is suitable for an area classified as Zone 1 Gas and Temperature Class T4 (135° C).
In special models the vacuum pump is suitable for zone ‘0’ internal-gas, zone ‘1’ external-gas with three different classes of temperature T4 (135° C) / T 150° C / T3 (200° C), depending on operation conditions.
Several models of pumps are offered: three of the single stage type and three of the dual stage type. Cooling is by air for all types. Special models with root compressor are also supplied on request. Nominal flow rate: from 80 to 3,800 cubic meters/hr. Vacuum: from 7 to 0.03 mbar.
A wide range of fittings is available to complete the Saurus939 series in order to allow turn-key installation of the pump:
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