Siltex B now available

Melbourne-based autoclave manufacturer, Siltex Australia, is poised to capitalise on world markets with the impending announcement that the draft European Standard for Class B autoclaves, prEN13060 - Small Steam Sterilizers, has been voted to become adopted as a full standard after more than a decade.

"We went back to the drawing board when we were designing the Siltex B," said Mr Danny Jonas, managing director of Siltex Australia. "We researched what our dentist customers, dealers and technicians wanted and needed, plus drew on the decades of experience we have in autoclave design and manufacture to deliver a product that will give us a leadership position in the market.

"The fact that its launch coincides with the adoption of a new standard which the Siltex B was designed around is an added bonus and obviously gives us scope for creating export markets."

The Siltex B, with a sterilization cycle for hollow instruments and a huge 22 litre stainless steel chamber, 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. The sterilizer has a built in leakage test cycle and features an automated door closing mechanism.

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 also features an optional internal temperature sensor for the load, where the sterilizer automatically determines the start of the sterilization stage/holding time.

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

Mr Jonas said that a key point they derived from their research was that dentists wanted to support an Australian made and owned product.

Siltex has manufactured autoclaves since 1967 and has produced some 15,000 units in that time. Located in Melbourne, the Australian owned enterprise employs 25 staff, is ISO 9001 accredited and its products are listed with the TGA.