System provides 24/7 monitoring, logging and alarm facilities for temperature, relative humidity, gas concentrations and differential pressure on the same system
The pharmaceutical industry, of all industries, has always been subject to the strictest regulations.
Accreditation of research and production quality by bodies like the MHRA, FDA and EU are becoming increasingly onerous.
There are justifiable reasons for this but with the enormous burdens of GLP, GMP and GDP, constant monitoring is required at every stage of the drug development process from discovery to post-marketing.
In the Pharmacy Practice guide to specialised hospital pharmaceutical services, it states that 'Controlled temperature storage facilities should be equipped with recording devices, and the storage temperature monitored regularly by a named person.' The food industry likewise is under the spotlight with tough new controls and scrutiny by the Food Standards Agency.
'As the market for refrigerated products and prepared meals is increasing rapidly, shelf life of fresh products is extended, whereas thermal treatments of products and ingredients are reduced to meet the consumer demand for fresh nutritious and tasty foods. Meanwhile, consumers and public authorities expect a high level of safety from foods throughout the cold chain.' Europe and most countries have set up regulations for temperature control and equipment performance evaluation for different steps of the cold chain from the storage down to display cabinets.
Monitherm brings the industry a system that takes away any inconsistency that may arise with manual systems of monitoring, removes the necessity to have a dedicated person responsible for this and also provides complete flexibility in an environment that may be changing from day to day.
The MLS2000 provides 24/7 monitoring, logging and alarm facilities for temperature, relative humidity, gas concentrations and differential pressure on the same system. This means the following benefits to the user: The monitoring is carried out on a regular basis, every two minutes, and all data is stored on a read only file on the hard disc so that it is tamperproof and traceability can be assured.
The comprehensive alarm function will alert staff with an audible and visual indication of precisely where and what the problem is.
Capable, if necessary, of calling in responsible persons from off site during periods where the plant may be unmanned.
Optional integral uninterruptible power supply (UPS) means that function is maintained and staff alerted in the event of power being disrupted, and yet the monitoring process is continuous during this time.
Capable of producing reports either locally or through a local area network (Lan), either as data tables or graphical reports on demand.
Because the MLS2000 is wire-free it can be installed retrospectively into most premises with minimal installation costs and added to at any time up to the recommended maximum of 128 sensors on one frequency.
Flexibility is a big benefit; new equipment can be added to the system or can be moved around to different locations without new wiring having to be installed.
This means that the system is very cost effective. Case scenario.
With fridges and freezers used for storage of valuable stock and samples, access is constantly required during the working day.
There is always a risk that a closure is faulty, a door can be inadvertently left open or equipment can fail when all personnel have left the vicinity.
An example of this is where a UK university was storing a considerable quantity of donated refined protein in a -80C freezer when a fault developed with the compressor.
Because the alarm on the freezer, which also failed, was linked to the temperature display and did not function, it was not noticed that the freezer was only at -5C and all the samples were lost.
This case would have been prevented if an independent monitoring system with an alarm had been in place.
In all situations; clean rooms, stability trial cabinets, sample storage refrigerators/freezers, controlled production processes or the working environment, the MLS2000 will continuously monitor conditions and let you know when things go outside user predetermined limits.
Newly available software allows any PC on the local area network to view in real time the state of any equipment and the facility to print off graphs, logs or alarm occurrences for any of the channels on the base station without the integrity of the data being compromised.
