Eisai Company, Limited

Micro Denshi Co., Ltd.

Katsumi Shimizu

Washiro Honda

Toshiyasu Ehara

Minoru Kudo

Kazumi Maruoka

Kenichi Iijima

Kiyoshi Yamagishi

While a sealed vessel such as a vial having an inside plug such as a rubber stopper is conveyed, the sealed vessel is slanted by a slanting device until liquid medicine in the sealed vessel touches the inside plug. The sealed vessel is moved and simultaneously rotated by a rotating device while the vial is slanted. The liquid medicine in the sealed vessel is heated at a heating portion by heat energy such as infrared, fuel gas and microwave, so that the heated liquid medicine causes heat sterilization of the whole sealed vessel including the inside plug. Sterilization can be completely carried out by providing a heat-retaining portion, cooling portion and drying portion next to the heating portion. An infrared radiation thermometer is provided at the end of the heating portion to measure the temperature of the liquid medicine, so that the temperature of the liquid medicine in each sealed vessel may be controlled to a desired temperature.

Method of sterilizing sealed vial and apparatus for sealing the vial

A container is held between a conveyor and guide means provided around the conveyor and the guide means come in frictional contact with the container to rotate the container around its own axis as the conveyor runs in its circumferential path. The conveyor is partially water-immersed within a water tank and the container being rotated by cooperation of the conveyor and the guide means within the water tank is applied on its side wall with ultrasonic waves from ultrasonic vibrators serving to flush the container. The conveyor is provided on its outer peripheral surface with fin-like projections vertically extending and circumferentially spaced from one another at regular intervals and there are provided around the conveyor upper rails, sloped rails and lower rails serving to support the bottom of the container. There may be provided guide means associated with the respective rails. Only the lower rails are immersed in water. There may be provided above the conveyor a nozzle serving to fill the container with flushing liquid such as water and there may be provided a heater below the water tank to enhance a flushing effect.

Container flusher

In the microwave oven of square waveguide type or coaxial tube type, the waveguide or inner conductor of the tube type is gradually declined from the inlet toward the outlet of the oven. A top slot is provided so that containers may be moved along the slot with their bottom portions being received in the oven and the contents heat sterilized. There is laid on a bottom surface of the oven a support rail for the bottoms of the containers, and this rail is gradually thickened from the inlet toward the outlet. More preferably, two or more such microwave ovens may be serially connected and the containers may be moved therethrough to heat sterilize medical fluids within each container in a stepwise manner.

Sterilizer for sealed container utilizing microwave

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Honjo, Japan

Katsumi Shimizu