JPS61244365A - Operation of steam sterilizing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] a0 Purpose of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The method of operating a steam sterilizer according to the present invention is a method for operating a steam sterilizer according to the present invention, which is used in hospitals etc. to store a large amount of patient clothes, surgical gowns, or various medical instruments. It is used when sterilizing.

(Prior art) In hospitals, in order to prevent secondary infections caused by bacteria adhering to patient clothes, surgical gowns, etc., these clothes, etc. are sterilized after use using a steam sterilizer installed in the hospital. things are being done.

As schematically shown in FIG. 3, the steam sterilizer includes an inner cylinder 1 having a door (not shown) through which objects to be sterilized can be taken in and out.
A reduction container 3 is made up of an outer cylinder 2 surrounding the inner cylinder 1 to heat the air inside (including water vapor) and objects to be sterilized; Both ends of the boiler 5 and 1, which feed high-temperature steam into the interior, are connected to the inner cylinder 1 and the outer cylinder 2, respectively.
and an exhaust pipe 9, which is connected to the inner cylinder 1 at one end and has a vacuum pump 8 in the middle, in order to make the inside of the inner cylinder l evacuated. It has become.

When sterilizing an object to be sterilized, a vacuum process is performed to extract the air from the object so that the high-temperature steam for sterilization enters the inside of the object, and a high-temperature steam for sterilization is introduced into the inner cylinder. The sterilization process of feeding the object and the drying process of drying the object to be sterilized which got wet with water vapor during the sterilization process are performed in order.During each process, water vapor is continuously supplied into the outer cylinder 2 of the sterilization container 3. During the vacuum process, the object to be sterilized is preheated to prevent the water vapor sent into the inner cylinder during the sterilization process from condensing on the surface of the object to be sterilized, and during the drying process, the object to be sterilized wet with water vapor evaporates. We are trying to promote this. or,
inside the inner cylinder l during the vacuum stroke.

By sending water vapor in pulses, the pressure inside the inner cylinder is varied, promoting the removal of air attached to the objects to be sterilized,
During the sterilization process, the inner cylinder 1 is filled with high-temperature steam, and the objects to be sterilized stored in the inner cylinder 1 are heated and sterilized. When the steam sent from the boiler 5 into the outer cylinder 2 through the steam supply pipe 4 is to be sent further into the inner cylinder l, open the on-off valve 6 in the middle of the pipe 7, and the water vapor inside the outer cylinder 2 is transferred to this pipe 7. The condensed water produced by condensing the water vapor sent into the inner and outer cylinders 1 and 2 in each cylinder is discharged from a drain outlet (not shown), and the steam is then supplied to the steam supply. It is replenished through tube 4.

The opening and closing of the on-off valve 6 that controls the supply and stop of water vapor into the inner cylinder l, and the operation and stop of the vacuum pump 8 in the middle of the exhaust pipe 9, refer to the progress of each of the vacuum, sterilization, and drying steps described above. This is automatically performed based on instructions from a microcomputer, etc. Along with such sterilization processing work, the pressure inside the inner cylinder 1 containing the objects to be sterilized changes as shown by the solid line a in FIG. The amount of water vapor released changes as shown by the broken line in the figure.

Incidentally, a plurality of such steam sterilizers are installed in places such as large hospitals where a large amount of objects to be sterilized must be sterilized at once. However, it is not preferable to provide a boiler for each sterilization container because it increases the cost and space required to install the steam sterilizer. The boiler 4 and a plurality of (three in the illustrated example) sterilization containers 3a, 3b, 3b are connected by steam supply pipes 4, and the boiler 5 on the first side connects the plurality of sterilization containers 3a, 3.
It is being considered to be able to feed water vapor into the areas b and 3c.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, when steam is supplied from the boiler 5 on one side into the plurality of sterilization containers 3a, 3b, and 3c as described above, the outer cylinder 2a of each sterilization container , 2b, 2c to the inner cylinder 1a
, lb, lc pipes 7a, 7b, 7c that send water vapor into lc.
If the on-off valves 6a, 6b, and 6c open at the same time,
The amount of steam sent out from the boiler 5 cannot keep up with the amount of steam flowing into each of the inner cylinders la, lb, and lc.

The temperature and pressure of steam in the boiler 5 and the outer cylinders 2a, 2b, 2c temporarily decrease, and the inner cylinders la, 1b, lc
If the rise in temperature and pressure inside the inner cylinders 1a, lb, and lc is delayed in this way,
Increasing the capacity of the boiler 5, which is undesirable because it tends to result in incomplete sterilization of the object to be sterilized, is difficult to adopt because it increases equipment costs.

The method of operating a steam sterilizer of the present invention eliminates the above-mentioned disadvantages.

b0 Structure of the Invention The method of operating the steam sterilizer of the present invention is to gradually shift the timing of opening on-off valves provided in the middle of pipes that feed steam into the inner cylinders of a plurality of sterilization containers each consisting of an inner cylinder and an outer cylinder. After the steam is fed into the inner cylinder of the first sterilization container and the amount of water vapor flowing into the inner cylinder is sufficiently reduced, the water vapor starts to be fed into the inner cylinder of the second sterilization container. I try to do that.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, to explain the case where the boiler 5 on the first side sends steam into the sterilization containers 3a, 3b, and 3c on the third side, as shown in FIG. , a third sterilization container 3b, an on-off valve 6b attached to 3b,
6c is closed, open the on-off valve 6a attached to the first sterilization container 3a, and send steam into the inner cylinder 1a of this sterilization container 3a. By opening the on-off valve 6a in this way, the first sterilization The amount of water vapor fed into the sterilization container 3a increases rapidly as shown by the solid line A in FIG. 2, but this amount decreases after a short period of time, after the inner cylinder 1a is filled with water vapor. When the amount of water vapor fed into the first sterilization container 3a is reduced in this way, the on-off valve 6b attached to the second sterilization container 3b is opened, and water vapor is sent into the inner cylinder lb of this sterilization container 3b. At the moment when the on-off valve 6b is opened, the on-off valve 6a attached to the first sterilization container 3a may still be in the open state. The amount of feed increases rapidly as shown by the broken line port in FIG. 2, but at this time, the first sterilization container 3a
Since the amount of steam fed into the second sterilization container 3b has already been reduced, the boiler 5 can supply a sufficient amount of steam into the second sterilization container 3b. After a short time has passed since opening the on-off valve 6b, the on-off valve 6C attached to the third sterilization container 3C is opened, and water vapor is sent into the inner cylinder 1c.
Since the on-off valve 6a attached to a is already closed and the inside of the inner cylinder 1a is evacuated by the vacuum pump (see Figure 3),
Once the inner cylinder 1c of the third sterilization container 3C is filled with water vapor, open the on-off valve 6a attached to the first sterilization container 3a again to send water vapor into the inner cylinder 1a, and then perform the above-mentioned operations. The vacuum process of each sterilization container 3a, 3b, and 3C is repeated a predetermined number of times.

After completing the vacuum stroke of each sterilized container 3a, 3b, 3c, the inner cylinder 1a, l of each sterilized container 3a, 3b, 3b is
The process moves on to the sterilization process, in which high-temperature steam is continuously fed into the containers b and lc. At this time, the on-off valves 6a and 6 attached to each sterilization container are
By shifting the timing of opening b and 6c as shown in FIG. 2, water vapor exceeding the supply capacity of the boiler 5 is
prevent it from flowing. However, since the amount of water vapor sent into each inner cylinder la, lb, lc at the start of the sterilization process is larger than that in the vacuum process, there may be a difference in the timing of opening the on-off valves 6a, 6b, 6b attached to each sterilization container. is larger than for the vacuum stroke. The on-off valves 6a, 6b, and 6a remain open throughout the sterilization process, and after performing sterilization work for a predetermined period of time, the next drying process begins. In Fig. 4, the pressure inside the inner cylinder is also varied during the drying process, but if the pressure inside the inner cylinder, which has become evacuated by operating a vacuum pump during the drying process, is increased, sterilization Since this is carried out by sending in clean air that has passed through a filter, the operating method of the present invention is not particularly relevant.

C9 Effects of the Invention Since the operating method of the steam sterilizer of the present invention is configured as described above, it is possible to sterilize objects to be sterilized stored in sterilization containers on multiple sides using a relatively small boiler on one side. Sterilization can be performed all at once, and highly reliable sterilization can be performed without reducing the pressure or temperature of the sterilizing steam.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a steam sterilizer to which the present invention is applied;
The figure is a diagram showing the relationship between the state of the on-off valve and the change in the amount of steam fed into the sterilization container when implementing the operating method of the present invention, and Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional steam sterilizer. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between pressure fluctuations in the inner cylinder and changes in water vapor feed stitching. L, la, lb, IC: inner cylinder, 2.2a, 2b, 2c:
Outer cylinder, 3.3a, 3b, 3C: sterile container, 4: steam supply pipe,
5: Boiler, 6.6a, 6b, 6C: On-off valve, 7, 7a
, 7b, 7C: pipe, 8: vacuum pump, 9: exhaust pipe.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Each outer cylinder of a plurality of sterilization containers consists of an inner cylinder with a sealable door at the opening for taking in and taking out objects to be sterilized, and an outer cylinder surrounding this inner cylinder, and a boiler on one side for steam generation. A method of operating a steam sterilizer in which an on-off valve is provided in the middle of a pipe that is connected to the inner and outer cylinders of the plurality of sterilization containers at both ends by a steam supply pipe. , open the on-off valve in the middle of the pipe provided in the first sterilization container, fill the inner cylinder of this first sterilization container with steam, and then open the on-off valve in the middle of the pipe provided in the second sterilization container. like,
A method for operating a steam sterilizer that sequentially opens a plurality of on-off valves by shifting the timing of opening the on-off valves provided in the middle of pipes of a plurality of sterilization containers by the time necessary to fill an inner cylinder with steam.