Edwards’ applications expertise benefits Cook Medical’s sterilisation process
New pumps are more reliable, with a faster pump down time
Edwards has supplied Cook Medical, the largest private medical device manufacturer in the world, with nine EDP chemical dry pumps. The pumps are used to sterilise all US manufactured Cook products, in a process using ethylene oxide. All products manufactured in the US go to the Ellettsville, Indiana, facility to be sterilised, amounting to approximately US$30m worth of product sterilised each day.
Cook Medical selected Edwards to replace the old dry pumps they had been using on their sterilisation process in Ellettsville; these pumps had been discontinued and support was weak so they looked for replacements. The high volume of products put through the process each day meant that high uptime was critical, so robust and reliable pumps were most important.
Edwards’ thorough application knowledge was also key to Cook Medical’s choice of partner; ethylene oxide sterilisation is an extremely dangerous process and Edwards EDP pumps are fully certified, and designed and tested for safety and reliability.
'As a result of installing Edwards’ EDP pumps we have much higher uptime on the process,' said Art Harris, Sterilization Manager at Cook Medical. 'The new pumps are more reliable, with a faster pump down time. We now have better knowledge of the process, and especially appreciate the temperature control aspect from the indirect cooling.'
Bob Campbell, Regional Market Sector Manager at Edwards added: 'We are delighted that we are able to support Cook Medical with their sterilisation process; our proven EDP pumps are specifically designed for harsh applications like this, and were the ideal vacuum solution here.'
EDP pumps are tried and tested market leaders, with many years of process and industry experience and a large installed base. They provide consistent vacuum at high efficiencies and low costs of ownership. Specifically designed for harsh chemical industry applications, they are easily maintained and have low utilities consumption. The staged compression for optimum temperature profile within the pump means there are no extra requirements for cooling gas injection.