Katflow range of clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeters from Katronic Technologies provides an excellent non-invasive flow measurement alternative to more conventional in-line metering techniques
Within the pharmaceutical industry, the maintenance of sterility in production environments is naturally of paramount importance.
It is for this reason that the Katflow range of clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeters from Katronic Technologies provides an excellent non-invasive flow measurement alternative to more conventional in-line metering techniques.
Irrespective of the actual process being carried out on a specific site, many pharmaceutical plants rely on the production and management of purified water systems for the correct operation.
Purified water for injection or WFI is a key part of a number of different manufacturing and medical processes and is defined as, 'water for parenteral use, prepared by distillation or reverse osmosis, containing no added substance, and meeting certain standards as to sterility and clarity'.
On most sites WFI is generated on site from purified water, which was in turn produced from raw water using a combination of filtration and de-ionisation.
The WFI has a number of different uses including, product manufacture, component cleaning, the cleaning and sanitisation of equipment and conversion to purified steam.
Owing to the different utilisation of WFI, it is essential that sterility be maintained at all times.
When any purified water system is installed it the system performance and integrity are confirmed, however during the lifetime of the plant modifications can be made and it is important that maintenance testing be carried out in order to ensure that all systems are operating correctly.
Part of these tests is ensuring that the flow rates through the systems are maintained.
It is that this point that Katronic says it is able to offer perfect monitoring for either temporary or permanent installation.
By mounting one of the Katflow range of ultrasonic flowmeters from Katronic Technologies it is possible to ensure that the correct flow rates are maintained at all times, it says.
While there are no specific regulations concerning the necessary flow rates for WFI many larger companies work to their own targets.
Some company guidelines suggest that within a purified water system flow rates should be maintained at a flow velocity of between 1m/s and 3m/s.
This is done in order to try and ensure turbulent flow within the pipeline.
It is hoped that by maintaining a turbulent flow condition the potential for microbiological build-up can be kept to a minimum.
Although it should be stressed that regular checks on the water quality are carried out on all WFI systems.
The portable KF220 flowmeter can be used for a complete site survey of all pipelines in order to verify that the flow velocity remain within the company-specified targets.
Furthermore, its large datalogger capacity can be utilised in order to store several weeks worth of data in order to spot trends in the flow and periods of peak demand.
As an alternative the KF110 flowmeter can be installed on a permanent basis in order to provide a trend to the control system and an alarm set to active should the flow level ever fall below the required level.
As all the equipment from Katronic is fully non-invasive there is no cutting into the pipeline, no loss of production or pressure and most importantly to risk of contaminating sterile processes.
