Lyo Shelf Mapping

We will be temperature mapping the shelves of our lyophilizer to determine uniformity. My question is how are others ensuring that good contact is made between the thermocouple and the shelf. I know there is a very expensive device available that will hold the TC in contact with the shelf. I’m wondering what other technicques others have used. We have used “pucks” and lyo trays to hold the TCs down in the past with limited success. I’ve looked for an appropriate compound to attach the TC to the shelf that is thermally conductive and will not leave an a problematic residue, but haven’t found anything yet.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I suggest using a tc holder device. We use a device that has two plastic polymer ends, and are attached by a spring. You can then compress the holder, place it between the lyo shelves, and then place your tc, either underneath the tc holder (on top of the shelf) or above the tc holder (underside of shelves).

Get some round wood in the form of 10mm diameter and what ever length you can get. Any DIY shop will stock such it.

Measure the distance between your shelves, then cut your wood rods into lengths that are around half an inch (12mm) less. Obtain rubber sheet (again DIY) about one inch (25mm) thick that is quite soft, but requires firm pressure to compress it to less than a quarter of it’s relaxed thickness. Cut the rubber into cubes and bond a cube of the rubber on to each stick.

When the stick is wedged between the shelves it firmly anchored the t/c’s, which incidentally we attached to small aluminium plate 25mm by 25mm by 10mm (1" x 1" 0.5").

It works quite well, we had a massive task a few years ago and it was well worth the time and effort doing this. We had to adjust the rod lengths for different shelf locations, so we numbered the rods and wrote up the method accordingly.

Alex Kennedy
CEO

Just to clarify, are you looking for tutorials and/or the program for mapping?