METHOD AND DEVICE FOR CLEANING PRIMARY PACKAGING MEANS

Abstract

A method for cleaning primary packaging means in pharmaceutical filling and/or packaging installations. The method includes a step of treating at least one surface of the primary packaging by means of blasting with carbon dioxide (CO2) snow, a step of using a gas flow for the suction extraction of substances cleaned off from the surface, and a step of filtering the gas flow comprising the substances contained in the cleaned-off substances. A related system includes a supply device for supplying liquid CO2 and compressed air to at least one nozzle designed to generate solid particles by means of expanding the liquid CO2 to be directed onto a surface to be treated, a holding device for primary packaging, a substance removal device to remove substances cleaned from at least one surface by means of a gas flow; and a filter device for the gas flow comprising the cleaned substances.

Claims

1. A method for cleaning primary packaging in pharmaceutical filling or packaging installations, comprising: treating at least one surface of the primary packaging using carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) snow blasting; using a gas flow to suctioning substances cleaned from the at least one surface by the CO.sub.2 snow blasting; and filtering the gas flow, the gas flow comprising the substances cleaned from the at least one surface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one surface of the primary packaging includes one or more of an outer face and an inner face of the primary packaging.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising treating the at least one surface of the primary packaging using an additional cleaning technique.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the substances cleaned from the at least one surface comprise at least one of: a contamination from a process of manufacturing the primary packaging, a microbiological contamination, a cleaning agent residue, and a product residue.

5. A system for cleaning primary packaging in pharmaceutical filling and/or or packaging installations, comprising: a supply device for supplying liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) and compressed air to at least one nozzle, wherein the at least one nozzle is designed to generate solid particles by means of expanding the liquid CO2 and to direct said solid particles onto a surface of a primary packaging; a holding device for holding the primary packaging relative to the at least one nozzle such that the solid particles can be directed to the surface; a substance removal device for generating a gas flow used to remove substances cleaned from the surface of the primary packaging by the solid particles; and a filter device for filtering the removed substances from the gas flow.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the system further comprises at least one displacement device to displace the at least one nozzle in a direction relative to the at least one primary packaging.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the system comprises a plurality of nozzles, and wherein the nozzles can be displaced individually or in groups by the at least one displacement device.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the holding device is configured to displace the primary packaging relative to the at least one nozzle.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the holding device is configured to rotate the primary packaging relative to the at least one nozzle.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the substance removal device comprises a suction device that generates the gas flow by negative pressure to suction the substances cleaned from the surface.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the substance removal device comprises a rinsing device.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein the at least one surface of the primary packaging includes one or more of an outer face and an inner face of the primary packaging.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein the substances cleaned from the at least one surface comprise at least one of: a contamination from a process of manufacturing the primary packaging, a microbiological contamination, a cleaning agent residue and a product residue.

14. A method for cleaning primary packaging in pharmaceutical filling or packaging installations, comprising: treating at least one surface of a primary packaging using carbon dioxide (CO2) snow blasting; and removing substances cleaned from the at least one surface of the primary packaging using a gas flow.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein removing the substances comprises using the gas flow to rinse the substances from the at least one surface.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein removing the substances comprises generating the gas flow by negative pressure to suction the substances from the at least one surface.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising filtering from the substances from the gas flow.

18. The of claim 14, further comprising wet cleaning the at least one surface of the primary packaging prior to treating at least one surface of the primary packaging using the CO2 snow blasting.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the substances cleaned from the at least one surface comprise at least one of: a contamination from a process of manufacturing the primary packaging, a microbiological contamination, a cleaning agent residue and a product residue.

20. The method of claim 3, wherein the additional cleaning technique comprises at least one of: wet cleaning the at least one surface of the primary packaging prior to treating the at least one surface of the primary packaging, and drying the at least one surface of the primary packaging subsequent to suctioning the substances cleaned from the at least one surface.

Description

[0012] Further features and advantages of the present invention will become clear from the following description of an embodiment which is shown schematically in the accompanying FIG. 1.

[0013] In FIG. 1, a device according to the invention for cleaning primary packaging in a pharmaceutical installation is generally designated by reference sign 10. This device 10 comprises two identical cleaning stations 12a and 12b, it also being possible to provide only one or any larger number of stations in variants of a device according to the invention.

[0014] Each of the two stations 12a and 12b is provided for cleaning a relevant primary packaging which are respectively designated A and B in FIG. 1, are shown as cylindrical hollow bodies and can represent ampoules, carpules or injection vials, for example. For this purpose, each of the two stations 12a and 12b firstly comprises a relevant holding device 14a and 14b which rotatably holds the corresponding primary packaging, which is indicated by the corresponding arrows P1.

[0015] Furthermore, each of the stations has two nozzles 16a, 18a and 16b, 18b, respectively, of which the first nozzle is provided for cleaning the outer face and the second nozzle is provided for cleaning the inner face of the corresponding primary packaging A, B, and which are accordingly positioned relative to the holding devices 14a and 14b, respectively. The nozzles 16a, 16b, 18a and 18b are each CO.sub.2 snow blast nozzles which can be designed, for example, as two-component ring nozzles. In two-component ring nozzles of this kind, liquid carbon dioxide is expanded to ambient pressure at the nozzle outlet and the resulting CO.sub.2 snow particles are bundled and accelerated by a cover blast of supersonic compressed air, thereby forming a CO.sub.2 snow blast 20 in each case.

[0016] It should be noted here that other carrier gases can also be used instead of compressed air, for example pure nitrogen, and therefore the carrier gas can also be formed by an inert gas.

[0017] A displacement device 22a and 22b is also associated with each of the nozzles 16a and 16b, respectively, by means of which devices said nozzles can be displaced in the longitudinal direction with respect to the primary packaging A and B relative to the holding devices 14a and 14b, as is also indicated by arrows. By operating the holding devices 14a and 14b in order to rotate the packaging A, B and the displacement devices 22a and 22b, the corresponding snow blasts 20 of the nozzles 16a and 16b can successively clean the entire outer surface of the packaging means A and B, respectively.

[0018] Finally, each of the stations 12 and 12b comprises a suction device 24a and 24b, respectively, which creates a gas flow by means of a negative pressure, by means of which gas flow substances cleaned from the primary packaging A, B can be suctioned off and transported away. In this case, a filter device (not shown) is associated with each of the suction devices 24a and 24b, through which filter device the gas flow containing the cleaned substances flows. Toxic or dangerous substances that are released while the primary packaging A and B are being cleaned can be trapped using these filter devices and disposed of by simply replacing the corresponding filters on a regular basis.

[0019] The nozzles 16a and 16b are supplied with liquid carbon dioxide and compressed air from a common source 26 for liquid carbon dioxide, for example in the form of a riser bottle, and from a common compressed air source 28, via respective feed lines 26a, 26b and 28a, 28b, respectively. It should be noted that the corresponding feed lines to the nozzles 18a and 18b are not shown in FIG. 1 merely for reasons of clarity, but that these nozzles are also supplied from the sources 26 and 28. Alternatively, however, a plurality of carbon dioxide and/or compressed air sources could of course also be provided. Moreover, a different pressurised carrier gas could be used instead of compressed air, for example pure nitrogen.