Gas sterilization has the advantage of effectively treating a wide range of products that are incompatible with treatment using ionizing rays.
The IONISOS group, a specialist in industrial sterilization for over 60 years, offers you a high-end, customized service and real responsiveness to meet your needs in France and Europe.
Used in the sterilization of products since the late 1930s, ethylene oxide is now widely utilized in the treatment of medical devices and pharmaceutical products, as well as in the disinfection of paper archives (library archives, registers, etc.).
Employed at low temperatures, it has the advantage of being compatible with a large number of products (including resins and polymers), including products whose composition requires a technique that will not alter their appearance or properties. Methods frequently used for the sterilization of medical devices and packaging, such as beta and gamma, are not always suitable for certain specific compositions. This is where gas treatment can be particularly useful for medical devices and pharmaceutical products. The list of products that can be treated using this technique is extensive.
Since ethylene oxide can infiltrate even the smallest folds and corners, it allows for the treatment of already packaged products as well as stacks of archives tightly packed in boxes.
However, for it to be effective, care must be taken to ensure that the packaging of the products to be treated is permeable to EO gas (or ETO)—one of the other terms used to refer to ethylene oxide.
Gas sterilization takes place in vacuum chambers at low temperatures, adhering to predefined gas concentration and humidity levels based on the characteristics of your products.
Temperature, pressure, and exposure time are among the other variables considered to achieve tailored sterilization.
The gas sterilization process occurs in three steps: preconditioning (where the products are preheated and humidified), sterilization, and finally dynamic aeration (or degassing phase). This last step aims to remove chemical residues from the products through a series of vacuum cycles and rinses.
Overall, the entire treatment process can take anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending on the volume of products involved, their nature, and their properties. The exposure time, as well as the degassing time, will indeed vary based on these factors.
Born from the merger between Conservatome, founded in 1956, and Amphytrion, two entities specialized in industrial treatment by ionization, IONISOS works daily with professionals in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, veterinary, medical, and agri-food sectors, as well as with local authorities and archiving services, strictly adhering to current regulations.
The group opened its first unit dedicated to ethylene oxide treatment in 2004 through its subsidiary Sterylene. A second specialized center subsequently opened in Civrieux d’Azergues in the Lyon region. Our sites have different sizes of treatment chambers.
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