Apparatus and process for concentrating a liquid sterilant and sterilizing articles therewith
OwnerPaul Jacobs, Suz-Min Lin +1inventors
InventorsPaul Jacobs, Suz-Min Lin, Jenn-Hann Wang
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Abstract
A method for sterilizing a device, includes the following steps: contacting the device with liquid sterilant outside or inside a sterilization chamber at a first pressure, placing the device in the chamber before or after the contacting step, and decreasing the pressure of the chamber to a second pressure below the vapor pressure of the liquid sterilant. At least the decrease in pressure below about the vapor pressure of the liquid sterilant occurs at a pumpdown rate of less than 0.8 liters per second, calculated based on the time required to evacuate the chamber from atmospheric pressure to 20 torr when the chamber is empty and dry.
Claims20
A method of furnishing concentrated hydrogen peroxide vapor to an article comprising the steps of:
- placing the article into a chamber containing an inner atmosphere;
- placing a solution comprising hydrogen peroxide and water into fluid communication with the chamber, said solution having a ratio of hydrogen peroxide to water;
- vaporizing the solution in the inner atmosphere to form water vapor and hydrogen peroxide vapor;
- selectively drawing water vapor from the chamber to increase a ratio of hydrogen peroxide to water in the chamber;
- and
- contacting the article with the hydrogen peroxide vapor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.