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Contamination Free Sensors For Single Use Bioreactors

Application bubble and flow sensors for single use systems

Single use bioreactors are becoming more popular and are widely used in the fields of bio-pharmaceutical, medical testing, and scientific experimentation.  These single use machines  use a disposable bag to contain the specimen as opposed to a vessel made from glass or stainless steel. This allows for better control of sterilization and testing results. Some disposable bioreactors use stirrers like regular bioreactors, but ones that are integrated into the plastic bag and sterilized. Other single use bioreactors are used by a rocking motion, this type of bioreactor does not need any mechanical agitators inside the single-use bag. Significant advances in film and sensor technologies, bioreactor designs, and stirring mechanisms have added to the increase of disposable reactors from labs to hospitals.

The Challenge

The customer needs to measure and monitor a number of factors, especially in precise environments, like pharmaceutical labs. Therefore, SMD  provided sensors to ensure that the application remained free of contamination while factors such as flow, pressure, leakage, and amount of material are being accurately measured and monitored.

Our Solution 

Strain measurement devices provided the customer with our standard line of disposable and non invasive sensors to answers these needs.

  • Flow: Both our non invasive flow meters and disposable inline flow meters help to ensure that the process is running smoothly, and that exact quantities of liquid are being moved. Flow meters can be used to measure instantaneous flow rate and total accumulated volume.
  • Pressure: Our non invasive pressure sensors can help to minimize high pressure spikes. Keeping pressure levels in check will prevent product from being lost. Noninvasive pressure sensors can be placed on either side of a filter and when the pressure differential gets too high, that can indicate that the filter needs to be changed.
  • Leaks: Our bubble sensors can detect air leaks in the system. Identical bubble sensors can be placed on either side of a piece of equipment, such as a pump or valve.  If more air is detected on one side than the other, then that can indicate an air leak on that piece of equipment.
  • Scales: can be used to trigger an alarm when tanks or bags of liquid are almost empty, scales can also be used to measure the amount of reagent fluid you have in the disposable bag. Helping to keep contaminated fluid contained while making measurements accurately and quickly.