Tony Rhodes, sales manager at Telstar's Technology Centre for Barrier Isolation System discusses what operating pressure manufacturers should choose during the aseptic processing of potent materials in isolators.
Pressure
This is a question that is posed regularly and divides opinion on which approach is the correct one.
Individually there is no question what route should be taken and most would agree that an isolator designed purely to provide a grade A environment for an aseptic filling or manufacturing process must be designed as a positive pressure system, to maximise the protection of the product ‘within’ from external contaminants. From a containment stand point an isolator solely designed to protect the operator from hazardous API’s must be designed as a negative pressure system.