6 key points customers should consider when purchasing a climatic chamber (accelerated aging chamber) – Point 2
Continuous and smooth operation of the climatic chamber is a prerequisite for long-term product stability testing according to ICH standards, or real-time sample testing over months or years.
Which current technical solutions can guarantee reliability during continuous operation?
Which factors should you pay special attention to, and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
This guide provides answers for users through the following 6 topics:
- Climatic zone
- Airflow
- Water for humidifier
- Light
- Continuous operation
- Programming and documentation
Point 2: Airflow
The airflow ducts in a climate chamber are responsible for distributing uniform temperature and humidity inside the chamber during operation.
Air movement in a climate chamber is critical; the air helps distribute temperature and humidity uniformly and accurately across all shelves inside the chamber. There are two airflow directions: horizontal airflow and vertical airflow.
Horizontal airflow: It delivers temperature-controlled heated air and humidity from the heating elements outside the jacket into all shelves throughout the interior (moving from right to left and vice versa). When the chamber is operating, Finished Pharmaceutical Products (FPPs) experience identical optimal conditions on every shelf. Air flows horizontally from both sides of the cabinet into the chamber (Figure 1) in a slow, uniform pattern across both the top and bottom of the shelves. This provides an advantageous storage condition for Finished Pharmaceutical Products (FPPs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).
Vertical airflow: In this case, temperature- and humidity-controlled air is directed from the bottom up through individual shelves. Normally, the lower shelves would obstruct the airflow to the trays above, but the APT.line™ preheating chamber technology of Binder climate chambers overcomes this issue to ensure temperature uniformity. Suitable for finished pharmaceutical products (FPP).
Figure 1: Heated air with controlled temperature and humidity flows horizontally from both sides into the chamber interior. At the back of the chamber, an exhaust fan recirculates interior air back to the heating elements outside the jacket to continue heating, ensuring thermal uniformity inside the chamber.
