Fourtec MicroLite Monitors Humidity Effectively in Veterinary Production

The principles of good manufacturing practice are very important in the production of veterinary products. Manufacturers must set up an effective quality assurance system, and the pre-established instructions and procedures must be followed. Technical measures must be taken in order to avoid, in particular, cross-contamination, and it is important to control temperature and humidity at several stages of the manufacturing process. In this article, we will delve into the application of the MicroLite data logger, an effective solution for monitoring Temperature and Humidity during the production of veterinary products.

Photo courtesy of FOURTEC

Application: Production of Veterinary Products 

About the Customer: 

A leading European manufacturer of Veterinary Products has established a validation group, for internal qualification of all thermally controlled equipment. The factory uses many different types of equipment, including refrigerators, freezers, chilled storage, incubators, walk-in chambers and thermostats. 

When a temperature and humidity controlled chamber is to be validated, the temperature must be monitored at all the key points inside the chamber, including the outer corners of the temperature controlled space. The humidity must also be monitored in at least one position. The temperatures are recorded regularly over a period of time, so that a picture can be built of how the chamber’s temperature varies across its interior space over time. This will then need to be compared to the main temperature and humidity settings of the chamber so that any deviations can be understood and rectified.

Photo courtesy of FOURTEC

Key Customer Challenges:

During the commission of a new thermostation room, the customer needed to confirm whether the heat distribution conforms to the requirements or not. After recording temperatures at several key positions, it was found that the lower positions inside were colder than the higher ones. Hence the air circulation had to be immediately reconsidered to avoid production failures. These changes were established by altering the air inlet and exhaust anemostats. For the qualification and testing of these changes, the Microlite logger was successfully used.

MicroLite Implementation:

12 MicroLite temperature loggers plus 1 MicroLite temperature and humidity logger were installed in the thermostation room for thermal mapping of each chamber. Simultaneously, 15 MicroLite loggers were used for further processing, investigation and trend analysis. The sampling for thermal mapping of each chamber was set for a week-long period with 1-minute intervals. 

Measurable Results:  

The independence of the stand-alone MicroLite loggers allowed the customer to position the loggers without the wired constraints of thermocouple based equipment. It was very easy to hang the loggers on shelves or to use the cradle for wall-mounting and even put them into closed chamber ovens without having the difficulty of leading the thermocouple wires out of the equipment. 

Data download is fast through the USB interface of the MicroLite Solution and can be even faster using a USB hub. Data is selectable for evaluation from the database from/to the exact time and unnecessary data can be easily cut from the beginning and the end, thus only important data is further processed. 

Accuracy levels are extremely high at 0.3°C and the memory capacity is large enough for the thermal mapping process of a chamber, for even for a week-long period with 1-minute intervals. Data were simultaneously exported from the additional 15 loggers, using the DataSuite software directly to an Excel datasheet for further processing, trend analysis and so on. 

With the MicroLite temperature data loggers and the easy to use DataSuite PC software, the veterinary manufacturer was able to clearly identify where the temperature chambers were not stisfying requirements, and were able to rectify the issues and re-validate the system.

Since 1971, ESIS has been a leading supplier in the Australian industrial electronic equipment market. Check out our products and services, designed exclusively to fulfil a wide range of needs. 

Contact us today to learn more about our wide range of temperature and humidity data loggers, or feel free to browse the ESIS website. 

Article courtesy of Fourtec.