Process vessels and equipment have come a long way in the past few years, be they mixing or blending vessels, temperature controls, cleaning and sanitization mechanisms or purified water systems.
Pharma storage tank manufacturers have also been riding this wave of advancements in process technology. Pharmaceutical storage vessels are no longer what they used to be – in terms of sophistication of design, quality of material, level of processing, or value-add features. No matter what customisation you need, your pharma storage tank manufacturers can usually make them happen – especially if they’ve been around to see the last couple decades of developments in the industry firsthand like we at TSA have.
Storage tanks in pharmaceutical industry plants are used in a number of operations for myriad applications. If you’re a producer of large volume parenterals (LVP) or small volume parenterals (SVP), you likely use pharmaceutical storage vessels to hold excipients, APIs or your final product before the preparation is moved to the next step of the process. In the case that you manufacture products that are not stable at room temperature, it’s possible you need cold storage for pharmaceuticals produced; this might be achieved by effective temperature controls on your pharmaceutical storage vessel.
And no matter what your end product is, you will almost necessarily need your pharma storage tank manufacturers to provide you with a storage system for purified water which you may need for water for injection (WFI), CIP functions, as a solvent, to produce pharma grade clean steam, or in the granulation process for tablets and capsules. In a nutshell, what we mean is that whether you produce oral formulations or parenterals, capsules and tablets or liquid doses, or any other pharmaceutical product, pharmaceutical storage vessels will be at the very centre of your operations.
Why do pharma storage tank manufacturers adopt cutting-edge technology?
You must be thinking: what could be so complex about storage tanks? What is so specialised about them? And just how much of a difference could technological improvements make? The answer to that last question: a lot more than you can imagine.
Evolving with the times, keeping up with the latest advancements in the industry, is a clear indicator to your consumers that you are relentless in your pursuit of the very best. But improving your pharmaceutical storage vessels is not just a matter of keeping up appearances; improved storage tanks in the pharmaceutical industry can enhance the quality, safety and efficacy of your manufacturing process.
Specifically, upgrading to the latest in process and high purity solutions can serve the following purposes:
Maintain product quality:
The chemical and biochemical reactions that make up pharmaceutical production are highly specific in terms of the conditions they require. Each product and reaction needs a specific temperature, pressure, pH and storage volume to progress smoothly. The slightest alterations to these environmental conditions can impact the integrity of your product.
Prevent contamination:
Naturally, pharmaceutical manufacturing has extremely high safety standards. Any kind of contamination can cause adverse effects in patients who use that particular product, so there is absolutely no scope for error at all. When the pressure is this high, do you really want to be taking any chances? This is where modern, state-of-the-art pharmaceutical storage vessels can be your best friend.
Unfortunately, contaminants can enter your product and interfere with your processes via a number of sources. Manual interference is quite likely to introduce contaminants as the microbes that exist in and on people can get into your pharmaceutical preparation. But even the air in your facility or the surfaces of your equipment can be a source of unwanted microorganisms. Pharma storage tank manufacturers, especially TSA, keep in mind all these potential sources of contamination and employ the latest, most sophisticated technology to protect your products from contamination and your reputation from any harm.
Ensure human and environmental safety:
Making sure your medical and pharmaceutical products are safe from unwanted external influence is definitely important. But what about the safety of your work environment and of the people who occupy it?
Product leaks are a very real threat to the safety of your people if you don’t take the utmost care. The raw materials you use in making drugs or vaccines may be corrosive and harmful to human skin. Or they may include active biological ingredients which can cause infection in humans. This isn’t a pleasant topic; we’re sure you don’t want to dwell on it. Which is why you should engage the services of a best-in-class pharma storage tank manufacturer like TSA to take the load off your mind.
What innovations are pharma storage tank manufacturers integrating into their pharmaceutical storage vessels?
The design and technological advances that characterise the latest storage tanks in the pharmaceutical industry are listed below. Whether your priorities are cold storage for pharmaceuticals, easy cleanability of equipment, or modularity of systems – we have just the customisations you need.
CIP/SIP integrations:
Regular maintenance and cleaning is critical to maintaining the sterile integrity of your product. Not only your process vessels, but also the associated piping, valves, instruments, hoses and filtration skid need thorough cleaning at regular cleaning.
Now if you dismantled your equipment every time you had to clean it, that would be a huge waste of time, wouldn’t it? Luckily, with cleaning in place (CIP) and sterilisation in place (SIP), you don’t have to lose hours to downtime. Integrated CIP and SIP functionalities mean that cleaning is more convenient as it doesn’t require equipment disassembly, the amount of water consumed for cleaning is lesser, and your dependence on manual interventions (and the associated contamination risks) is eliminated.
Movable or fixed skid systems:
In the past, machinery and process vessels had to be permanently installed at their position in the manufacturing plant. These installed systems were neither modular, nor mobile. These traditional stick-built systems involved risks to labour and to the equipment itself. Fortunately, we now have skid systems which come with the benefits of mobility, modularity, protection, convenience and shorter time to production since the prefabricated modular skid comes to you all at once, rather than the incremental installation of traditional process parts which can put off production and interrupt existing operations for far longer than you would like.
Temperature controls:
Be this through the use of heat exchangers, jacketed, limepeted or plain insulation, or refrigerated containers for your cold storage for pharmaceuticals raw materials and end products. Like we mentioned earlier, controlling the temperature at which the different elements of your pharmaceutical reaction interact is critical. And the customisations provided by TSA for pharmaceutical storage vessels for sterile pharma and injectables can help you achieve all that complex chemistry under optimal conditions.
Level sensors:
TSA can also customise storage tanks in pharmaceutical industry use cases to integrate level sensing mechanisms. Level sensors serve multiple functions in pharma storage tanks. By measuring the level of a substance in a pharmaceutical storage vessel, not only can you prevent overflow conditions and maintain a sterile surrounding environment, but you can also ensure that the level of the substance doesn’t go too low – a circumstance in which external air may enter the container, bringing with it atmospheric contaminants.
Ultimately, the quality you bring into your pharmaceutical manufacturing operations is the quality that will translate forward to your end consumers. When you’ve taken the utmost care in installing, operating and maintaining your plant, it shows. Investing in the very best doesn’t have to bankrupt you. It is completely possible to balance quality with cost-effectiveness. TSA is the best partner to support you through this journey. We can help you address your process and high purity challenges with skill and confidence. Head on over to check out our pharmaceutical process vessels for sterile pharma and injectables, will you?
