Siltex B complies with standards

Following the final publication of European Standard EN 13060:2004 Small Steam Sterilizers recently (ADP Sep/Oct 2004), Melbourne-based autoclave manufacturer Siltex Australia have certified that their new Siltex B is compliant.

This standard, that designates compliant sterilizers as Type B (sometimes erroneously referred to as Class B), specifies the general requirements for small steam sterilizers and test methods for specified sterilizer loads. These test loads include unwrapped solid products, full porous load, small porous load, small porous items, hollow loads type A, hollow loads type B, single wrapped products and double wrapped products.

The Siltex B has a stand-by preheat mode between cycles that allows a significant reduction to the cycle duration and water consumption. The user may select the duration time of the stand-by preheat mode. The sterilizer features an automated door closing mechanism and contains two separate water tanks - one for condensation and used water (dump tank) and another for distilled/demineralised water. A message automatically appears when water is to be added into the water reservoir and when to empty the dump tank.

Siltex's B comes with a built-in printer for creating a hard copy of sterilization results. The sterilizer is also equipped with a computer serial interface and an optional digital data cartridge device, which allows transfer of data to a PC.

"You can also be assured that the Siltex B will pass the recommended tests, the Bowie-Dick-Simulation and Air Leakage tests as per the requirements of Australian Standards AS 4815 and AS4187," Mr Danny Jonas, managing director of Siltex said.

After testing a variety of simulators, Siltex recommends using the gke-Steri-Record-Bowie-Dick simulation test (BDS-Test) which complies to international standards. The gke-BDS-Tests have an extremely high sensitivity for monitoring air removal and steam penetration.