Claranor Pass Box: Pulsed light decontamination for the pharmaceutical industry packaging
The Claranor Pass Box for the pharmaceutical industry enables “clean” decontamination, without chemicals or water, thanks to light flashes generated by xenon lamps.
Article published in Usine Nouvelle, June 10, 2024
Read the original article in French
The Pass Box uses pulsed light, a technique that destroys micro-organisms with flashes of light.
Claranor Pass Box, pulsed light decontamination for the pharmaceutical industry
“In the pharmaceutical world, hygiene is of the utmost importance. And Claranor, a specialist in packaging decontamination using pulsed light, understands this. The company, based in Avignon (Vaucluse), has just unveiled a new solution, the PassBox, similar to a microwave oven, which “enables the transfer of materials between areas of different hygiene levels, to avoid cross-contamination between rooms, and thus facilitates the rapid introduction of materials into the cleanroom and isolator”.
This is made possible by the use of pulsed-light decontamination, a clean sterilization process that requires no chemicals or water, and therefore no environmental emissions, and low energy consumption. In concrete terms, this technique destroys micro-organisms using brief, intense flashes of light generated by xenon lamps. Electrical energy (300 J) is discharged from a capacitor in less than 1 ms into a lamp,” explains the company, “where it ionizes the xenon and creates a plasma. This plasma produces a very intense emission of white light, rich in UV. The result is a very high-power pulse, reaching 1 megawatt.
As a reminder, the company, which employs 40 people, offers decontamination tools using the same process for the beverage market, notably cans, food and cosmetics, as with the bulk Fountain for the l’Occitane brand, enabling consumers to decontaminate their aluminum bottles in a matter of seconds directly in the store and refill them.