Application of lyophilization technology started in early 1980s. Lyophilization refers to the method that freezes Liquid into solid by pre-cooling, and then sublimates water directly from solid into water vapor to obtain drying under the vacuum condition. Shelf is the core part of freeze dryer. It is the shelf used for storing products in the freeze-drying chamber during lyophilization process, and cooperates with the loading & unloading system to realize the products’ loading & unloading of the freeze-drying chamber, and in the meantime, the surface of the shelf is in direct contact with the product or product container, and it is also used for even heating and cooling of products.
In November 2019, Truking’s digital intelligent automatic welding line established a process digital traceability system that covers whole production cycle of shelfs. With digital tracking number as the core, it can meet shelf’s auxiliary feeding, automatic feeding & discharging, laser labelling, logistics transshipment, welding, automatic unit-polishing, automatic material-cleaning, leveling, sanding, flatness and roughness test, automatic integration and quality traceability function in the transformation and production process, and intelligent material delivery during station production process of the whole line. The functions are described in details as follows:
Autogenous welding of shelf and edge steel
After completing splicing of shelf and edge steel, the frames shall undergo welding process, which is the most core process during the shelf processing, and it decides quality of shelfs directly. Manual welding is traditionally adopted, which has poor quality uniformity and great labor intensity, and the noise, strong light and dust, etc. can cause pollution to the welding personnel and environment, therefore, digital shelf processing line adopts robot laser welding process to replace original manual welding.
Automatic welding of shelfs adopts laser tracking principle, and follows the laser triangulation measurement principle: three parallel laser beams project onto the surface of the base material at a slant angle of 20 degrees, and generate deformation on splicing edge of the weld; in the meantime, a digital camera is used to scan the work area, collect and process the data of laser rays, thus determining the weld location.
Autogenous welding of shelf and edge steel
By virtue of this welding method with automatic tracking and stable output current, it has solved the industrial difficult problems with manual welding of shelfs such as poor-quality uniformity, low efficiency, great labor intensity, severe pollution, as well as great difficulty and poor quality stability with automatic welding of Grade I shelf stainless steel weld.
chamber structure design
The cavity is shaped by an integral plate with rounded corners, and the whole cavity has only one welding joint. There is no risk of leakage.
The isolator, the freeze dryer and sterilizing & drying tunnel are connected by full-length welding process, which have no risk of leakage, and do not require regular maintenance.
Shelf welding by vacuum brazing
At present, Truking uses vacuum brazing for welding of shelfs. In the form of hollow square tube, it makes pot welding of the brazing solder to the hollow square tube, and then welds the square tube with the solder to the board, and uses crossers to have close contact with the board, places them in vacuum brazing furnace, and then connects the upper and lower boards with the square tube under vacuum and high temperature in accordance with the vacuum brazing process, and then upon completion of brazing, makes welding of surrounding places of the shelf. Compared with manual argon tungsten-arc welding and drilling plug welding methods, vacuum brazing has smaller welding deformation and quicker welding speed, as well as thinner board and better heat-conducting performance of the shelf.
Integrated cleaning and drying process of shelfs
During welding process of shelfs, the surface cleaning is a very important process. Poor cleaning will make it easy to cause poor welding quality, sand hole in the weld and other problems. Traditional cleaning process relies on artificial immersion and scrubbing, which is a waste of time and energy, besides, the residual water on the shelfs are difficult to dry, and the whole process will require 65min on average; however, in automatic welding process, integrated cleaning and drying process of shelfs is added, which is equipped with high-pressure spray nozzle and drying & heating tube, enabling the whole process to make thorough cleaning and quick drying; the operation speed of shelfs on the integrated machine is set at 25cm/min, and the whole process will take no more than 35min.
Double-motor station sander
Traditional sander only has one polishing station, and the board-layer undergoes polishing once only; while in automatic welding process, the polisher has two polishing stations, which can enable the board-layers to undergo back-and-forth polishing in the sander, thus having higher production efficiency.
Intelligent digital online testing
Upon completion of sanding, the board-layer shall undergo flatness test and roughness test. After passing the flatness test and roughness test, the board-layers shall be off the line by stacking, and then processing of board-layers is completed.
Automatic welding process technology of board-layers
Compared with traditional manual welding process, it has solved industrial difficult problems with board-layers such as the quality uniformity is poor, welding of Grade I board-layer stainless steel weld is of great difficulty and the welding quality is of poor stability, and has effectively improved overall quality of biological freeze dryer, and it is also equipped with obvious technology and cost advantages as follows:
The number of personnel configured for board-layer and edge steel welding process is reduced from 4 to 3, and the labor cost is reduced by 25%.
With breakthrough of process technology as well as reduction in welding time, cleaning time and polishing time, etc., production efficiency per day is improved by 50%.
Lump-sum leakage detection pass rate of board-layers is improved from 90% to 100%.
Having been in sincere development for 21 years, Truking’s investment in research and development accounts for 30% of its total investment, and it maintains constant innovation and perfection of products, and guarantees globally leading technology as well as globally leading quality. Under the premise of guaranteeing product quality, Truking realizes quick delivery of project, establishes service centers all over the globe, makes quick after-sales service response, and provides one-stop turnkey projects for its customers. In addition to integrated solutions for water-needle lyophilization, we are also capable of providing integrated solutions for bioengineering, TCM engineering, sterile preparation, solid preparation, testing and secondary packaging, water for pharmaceutical use, EPCMV service, and intelligent manufacturing, etc.