Ulvac, Inc.

Tomomitsu Ozeki

Tsuyoshi Yoshimoto

Yoichi Ohinata

Manabu Kotaka

Akihiro Maeda

Yuki Yoshimura

A freeze-drying apparatus includes a freeze-drying chamber in which an object to be dried using water as a solvent is disposed, a collection chamber provided with a cold trap which connects with the freeze-drying chamber to condense and collect water vapor generated from the object to be dried, measuring devices which measure a state quantity of at least one of the object to be dried, an inside of the freeze-drying chamber, and an inside of the collection chamber, and a determining unit which determines a water vapor mass flow rate based on the state quantity measured by each measuring device, in which the determining unit has measurement models performed to observe the water vapor mass flow rate, and while each measuring device measures the state quantity, a set based on which the water vapor mass flow rate is determined with superiority at the time of the determination is selected.

Freeze-drying device and freeze-drying method

A freeze-drying device includes a controller configured to control depressurization of containers filled with a liquid including a raw material and a medium to freeze the liquid from a liquid surface. The freeze-drying device also includes a gas capture pump configured to exhaust a freeze-drying chamber accommodating the containers, and a positive-displacement pump configured to discharge gas from a space accommodating the gas capture pump. The controller executes an exhaust mitigation process that performs the depressurization at an exhaust capability that is less than a rated exhaust capability of the freeze-drying device. The controller uses a partial pressure value of the medium to determine when the exhaust mitigation process ends. The controller maintains an exhaust speed of the gas capture pump and decreases an exhaust speed of the positive-displacement pump in the exhaust mitigation process.

A freeze-drying method includes depressurizing containers filled with a liquid including a raw material and a medium with a freeze-drying device to freeze the liquid from a liquid surface. The depressurizing includes executing an exhaust mitigation process that performs the depressurizing at an exhaust capability that is less than a rated exhaust capability of the freeze-drying device, and using a partial pressure value of the medium to determine when the exhaust mitigation process ends. The executing an exhaust mitigation process includes maintaining an exhaust speed of a gas capture pump configured to discharge gas from a freeze-drying chamber accommodating the containers, and decreasing an exhaust speed of a positive-displacement pump configured to discharge gas from a space accommodating the gas capture pump.

Provided is a mixing device that is configured to install therein a multi-well plate including a plurality of wells capable of containing matter to be mixed and includes mixing mechanisms each of which mixes the matter to be mixed with a motor and is provided for each of the wells. The mixing mechanisms each includes a first rotator that is connected to the motor and rotates due to activation of the motor, a mixing rod that mixes the matter to be mixed, a second rotator that supports the mixing rod, a magnetic coupling mechanism that magnetically couples the first rotator to the second rotator, and a seal ring that surrounds an opening of the well and is capable of closing the well together with the second rotator.

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Chigasaki, Japan

Tomomitsu Ozeki