Design of a Cleaning Monitoring Methodology for a Clean in Place (CIP) Fluid Bed Dryer (FBD) using "Rapid Testing" Applications

Abstract

Over the past years, rapid testing technologies have been developed for the purpose of changing the way microbiology and chemical analysis is done. Rapid testing technologies are a valuable tool for the pharmaceutical industry to monitor process efficiency in significantly less time than typical technologies. Manufacturing equipments cleaning is a process that can be monitored using rapid testing technologies. The high capital costs and product demands require that the equipment be reused in a continuous way. Reducing downtime of the laboratory evaluations for equipment release brings substantial cost improvements for the manufacturing activities. This article describes a cleaning monitoring methodology for a CIP-FBD that incorporates rapid testing technologies for the verification of the cleaning process efficiency. Based on proposed design, it is shown the possibility to configure a cleaning monitoring methodology for the CIP-FBD consisting of an assembly that allows for a rapid evaluation of the cleaning process.