New Total Containment Isolation System Reduces Toxic Dust Emissions

A new contained docking system, the BuckValve TC (Total Containment), from Niro Pharma Systems, reduces dust exposure in the atmosphere when processing highly toxic pharmaceutical products by up to 100 fold. The system is targeted to achieve levels of under 100 Nanogr/m3 making the working environment for operators safer than ever possible before, when using comparable valve technology.

Until now, split valve technology for docking systems has been considered to achieve airborne concentrations of powder of between 1-10 microgrammes/m3 (i.e. 10-6). The new BuckValve TC is designed to achieve levels of 100 Nanogr/m3 (i.e. 10-9) and, in tests, has achieved levels of only 20 Nanogr/m3.

The BuckValve TC achieves this remarkable performance by incorporating an automatic washing system, in an enclosed loop, within the valve itself. This ensures that any dust left adhering to the valve's outer surfaces is washed off prior to the valve being exposed to the atmosphere.

This provides better containment and can completely avoid the need for isolators, which are expensive and difficult to use, or for specialist protective clothing. In turn, this reduces costs and significantly improves working conditions for operators.