Design of a load-lock system for the lyophilization of unit-dose pharmaceuticals in a continuous manufacturing machine

Lyophilization, or freeze drying, of unit-dose pharmaceuticals eliminates the need to preserve quality through regulated temperature storage during transport. Typical lyophilization is performed through batch processing, but implementing continuous manufacturing instead can lead to improved process control, higher quality product, and increased flexibility. Lyophilization involves four processing chambers at specific pressures and transferring vials between the chambers requires a load lock system. Load lock systems, commonly used in the semiconductor industry, act as a transfer chamber in order to reduce pump-down and venting time of its adjacent processing chambers. This thesis documents the research and design of a load lock system for a continuous manufacturing lyophilization machine.

Name thesis:degree_name

Bachelor

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Le, Serena.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alexander H. Slocum.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127929

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/127929