American Sterilizer Company

Vipul B Sheth

Donald C Upchurch

Thaddeus Joseph Mielnik

Peter E Zell

David E Shoff

H William Hillebrenner

William C Little

Charles T Curtis

Kevin H Butler

Robert S Petko

Joseph M Stack

A system for sterilizing an object including a hollow cassette for containing the object, a sealable opening in the cassette for ingress and egress of the object, a seal for forming a fluid-tight seal around the opening, input and output ports in the cassette for receiving and exhausting a sterilizing fluid and a sealing check valve in the input and output ports for providing a fluid-tight seal when no connections are made to the input and output ports such that when the object is sterilized within the cassette, the cassette will maintain a sterilized atmosphere for the object until the cassette is opened to allow use of the object.

Device and system for sterilizing objects

A method is provided for detecting moisture in a sterilization chamber or other enclosure (including moisture present on the external or lumened surfaces of an instrument or other load placed in the enclosure). The method includes the steps of exhausting air from the enclosure under vacuum until the pressure in the enclosure is reduced from a starting pressure to a predetermined subatmospheric pressure which is above the saturation pressure of water, and then a second predetermined subatmospheric pressure which is below the saturation pressure of water or other liquid. The times taken to reach each pressure from the starting pressure are measured and their difference is calculated and compared to a reference time difference pre-established for a dry system (or, alternatively, in a known, leak-free system, only the pull-down time period to reach the second subatmospheric pressure is measured and compared to a pre-recorded reference pull-down time for a dry system). When the enclosure contains a lumened instrument, such as an endoscope, fluidly coupled to the exhaust port of the enclosure, the method preferably includes the steps of sensing the temperature in an exhaust conduit fluidly coupled to the exhaust port, during a time period in which the enclosure is evacuated, measuring the minimum temperature reached during the time period and comparing it to a reference minimum temperature pre-established for a dry system.

System for detecting the presence of liquid in a vapor phase

A method is provided for detecting moisture in a sterilization chamber or other enclosure (including moisture present on the external or lumened surfaces of an instrument or other load placed in the enclosure). The method includes the steps of exhausting air from the enclosure under vacuum until the pressure in the enclosure is reduced from a starting pressure to a predetermined subatmospheric pressure which is above the saturation pressure of water, and then a second predetermined subatmospheric pressure which is below the saturation pressure of water or other liquid. The times taken to reach each pressure from the starting pressure are measured and their difference is calculated and compared to a reference time difference pre-established for a dry system (or, alternatively, in a known, leak-free system, only the pull-down time period to reach the second subatmospheric pressure is measured and compared to a pre-recorded reference pull-down time for a dry system).

Method of detecting liquid in a sterilization system

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Cary, NC, United States of America

Vipul B Sheth