This photo from the home page is a product gone wrong and the loosened and fragmented “plug” is indicative of a problem during freeze drying.  Getting to the root cause of why ths occurred is possible.  Some of the ways in which one can find a fault in a freeze drying system is to compare data from previous successful cycles with the data from the failed cycle.  It is important to obtain refrigeration pressures, compare operational temperatures and system refrigerant gas pressures against norms, and then make corrections to the freeze dryer based upon these findings.   In most cases finding faults is a deductive process which makes use of data of some kind that is usually readily available in the historical trends, on maintenance screens, and from data taken from SOPs which may be in place.

Expertise is needed  to compare data from the process trends and identify where the processes differ.  Should your company lack this expertise, or if you need some training to assist setting up a program to act as the basis for capturing and interpreting the data please contact us for assistance.