Stability Testing Chambers in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Stability testing chambers are enclosures used to assess the effects of pre-specified environmental circumstances on biological materials and industrial/electronic components. The most common use of these stability chambers (sometimes referred to as environmental chambers) is that of stand-alone specimen testing for decomposition and reduced efficiency under various temperature and humidity ranges.
Small Scale Stability Testing
Stability chambers were originally large and immobile but the demands of modern testing applications have led to smaller, more portable units. This is often called “Small Scale Stability Testing” and is commonly used in Food and Pharmaceutical product testing.
Using wireless technology provides convenient wireless test kits complete with calibrated sensor caps, logger caps and related logging software compliant software.
How Stability Testing Works
1. Humidity capsules are used to control the humidity within the test chamber
2. The humidity capsule is pierced and placed in the test chamber
3. The test material is placed in one of the other compartments within the test chamber
4. Sensor caps incorporate a temperature and humidity sensor on the inside of the cap
5. The sensor cap is also used to seal the test chamber
6. A logger cap which contains a memory chip and short range transceiver is connected to the sensor cap and is used to collect and transmit data wirelessly to the Control Software
7. Before connection the logger cap must first receive the test settings by docking the logger cap on the basestation which is connected to a computer or laptop.
8. The logger cap is then connected to the sensor cap to initiate the test. The unit is then incubated at the required temperature for the require time.
9. The temperature and humidity test conditions are then transferred wirelessly to the Control Software for presentation and reporting.
Each test monitored in its own micro-humidity chamber and humidity settings can be varied according to the testing requirement. Some Stability Testing are sold complete with customisable control software and built in offsite backups which comes in handy if when testing a large number of samples or when many locations need to share testing data quickly.
If possible try to source your stability testing chambers from a provider that also offers repair and calibration services. The integrity of the data is based on properly calibrated and fully functional units.
