I have been trying to find a solution for this myself, but keep hitting dead ends.
My company wants to ship a part of a 'clean' machine by air. This part is packed in a plastic container. The container is not airtight.
Around this container will be a double PE bag, sealed tight to prevent contamination on the box. Around that will be a corrugated box for placing labels and general prackaging protection.

Problem is: if you take this contraption up in the air, it will be subjected to a pressure difference of 0.3 bar. This means that the plastic bags could burst, or swell so much that the corrugated box will tear. So we have been trying to come up with a way to neutralize this pressure difference, without creating possible sources of contamination. So far, we've come up with a particle filter which can be placed in the wall of the PE bag. If the bag can 'breathe', excess air should be able to flow in and out freely while the filter should block any particles.

Do any of you know of a product that can do this? Or is there another way to neutralize the pressure difference?

Thanks a lot in advance, because I'm stumped  ???

Hi Maarten,

We get around this problem by vacuum packaging components in order to minimise the effects of pressure difference at altitude. For small components we utilise vacuum chamber packaging machines (typically sealing anywhere between 20mbar and 500mbar depending on the size/shape of the component. For larger components/assemblies that do not fit in the vacuum chamber sealing machines, we use an external vacuum pump to draw a vacuum via a port in the packaging – which is then sealed once the required pressure has been reached.

For applications where vacuum packaging is not appropriate, we use breathable sterile barrier packaging (utilising a porous substrate such as Tyvek) which enables the packaging to allow the ingress/egress of air without entraining large particles and bacteria; or stressing the packaging substrates/seals. Typically we favour impermeable barriers over permeable (especially where moisture is a consideration) but it all depends on the application.

All of this has to be tried/tested as part of a validation protocol.

Hope this helps.

Duncan.

Hi Maarten,

We get around this problem by vacuum packaging components in order to minimise the effects of pressure difference at altitude. For small components we utilise vacuum chamber packaging machines (typically sealing anywhere between 20mbar and 500mbar depending on the size/shape of the component. For larger components/assemblies that do not fit in the vacuum chamber sealing machines, we use an external vacuum pump to draw a vacuum via a port in the packaging – which is then sealed once the required pressure has been reached.

For applications where vacuum packaging is not appropriate, we use breathable sterile barrier packaging (utilising a porous substrate such as Tyvek) which enables the packaging to allow the ingress/egress of air without entraining large particles and bacteria; or stressing the packaging substrates/seals. Typically we favour impermeable barriers over permeable (especially where moisture is a consideration) but it all depends on the application.

All of this has to be tried/tested as part of a validation protocol.

Hope this helps.

Duncan.