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Aurora® Filters

The production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and performance chemicals requires effective containment to ensure operator safety and product integrity.  Aurora® Filters, located in Toronto, Canada, designs and fabricates a line of Nutsche style filters for the pilot scale production of active pharmaceutical ingredients. These filters are designed primarily for the applied research, development, and pilot scale operations within the pharmaceutical and chemical industry.  Aurora Filters combine a glove box with a single filter plate driven by vacuum or 1bar pressure under an inert gas blanket to ensure operator safety and product integrity.  This allows Chemists and Operators the ability to watch the process during the Filtration and Drying step of product isolation, while maintaining safe containment.

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  • Simplicity of operation, easy to use, and quality craftsmanship
  • Fully contained filtration, optional drying, and discharge of product within an inert environment
  • Economical solution for cGMP filtration
  • Easy adaptation for multi-product or R & D facility maximizes flexibility and minimizes downtime
  • Easy to clean and low maintenance
  • Completely isolates oxygen and moisture sensitive products
  • Heating/cooling jacket (-30°C to + 100°C) in cake development area for controlled temperature filtration
  • No mechanical seals or internal threaded parts.
  • Custom fabricated to the exact customer specifications and choices of various options.

The Aurora Filters is essentially a Nutsche-type filter with an upper chamber that acts as a glove box with a temperature controlled jacket zone and product chute outlet and a bottom chamber is the filtrate reservoir.  The upper and lower chamber is separated by the filter plate which supports the filter media.  The entire filtration operation is contained in an inert environment.

While each Aurora Filters is custom fabricated for each customer, the core engineering behind each Aurora Filters is sound.  Some common features that go into each Aurora Filters:

  • Aurora Filters are available in two different models – A-Series and P-Series.
    • The A-Series are the original Aurora Filters and are designed for Atmospheric conditions in the upper chamber and vacuum conditions in the lower chamber
    • The P-Series have been designed to allow for pressure and vacuum conditions throughout the filter without having the remove the gloves under these conditions as this design includes the Glove Port Equalization system.
  • Aurora Filters are available in three different material types:
    • 316LSS
    • 316LSS with ETFE lining
    • Hastelloy C22
  • Interior surfaces of the 316LSS and Hastelloy C22 are mechanically polished to 0.5mRA. Exterior surfaces of all filters are mechanically polished to 0.8mRA
  • Aurora Filters are available in various sizes. Each size translates to a minimum and maximum cake development capacity
  • Eight common process connections – Slurry inlet, Nitrogen inlet, CIP wash inlet, Vent, Nitrogen inlet for drying, Final vacuum outlet, Filtrate vacuum outlet, and Product chute outlet
  • Each Aurora Filters has a large viewing window in the upper chamber as well as a small sight glass in the filtrate reservoir. With the glove box feature the chemists are able to touch and see the product throughout the filtration process
  • The top viewing window has plexiglass protective covers help to protect the viewing window from damage during maintenance.
  • The Heating/Cooling jacket is normally designed to 75psi for a variety of heat transfer fluids and is registered to ASME Code and can also be built to CE/PED standards. The jacket area surrounds the cake development area of the filter
  • An Integral Nitrogen Preheating System is built into each Filter. Two additional nozzles have been added to the jacket zone of the upper chamber to allow the customer to introduce nitrogen into the jacket area where it will be subjected to the latent heat of the jacket in order to warm the nitrogen prior to introduction to the vessel.  Additional insulated hoses are required by the customer
  • The upper and lower chambers are separated at a flange connection where the filter plate is located which supports the filter media
  • Filter media is not supplied with the Aurora Filters. Customers are required to source their own preference for filter media to suit their needs. Aurora Filters can be supplied to handle traditional Cloth Filter Media or Wire Mesh Filter Media, or a combination of both options
  • The smaller filters (14” and 20”) have mechanical ACME thread assisted systems for raising and lowering the lower chamber to separate the filter and access the filter media. The larger filters (26”, 36”, and 48”) are supplied with hydraulic handling systems which offer maintenance free operation
  • Simple threaded levelling legs are installed on the upper chamber legs to assist in leveling the filter prior to introduction of slurry and wash fluids.
  • All Filters are supplied with lifting lugs. Also available on the 26, 36, 48 Filters are optional Forklift Channels to allow the complete filter to be lifted with a forklift
  • All wet side gaskets are Teflon or Teflon encapsulated
  • CIP Spray ball assembly in Teflon, 316LSS, or Hastelloy C22 material. Spray ball assembly can be removed from the filter without disassembly
  • One set of ESD Butyl gloves provided as standard, other materials can be special ordered
  • Glove clamps, product chute bag clamps, polypropylene product scoops, operational tools and toolbox
  • Complete Operational and Maintenance Manual, Quality Assurance History Docket, Factory Acceptance Test Protocol and Report all ready for Site Acceptance Testing and customer Equipment Validation
  • Spare Parts list supplied with pricing that is held for 12 months from purchase
  • 12 month warranty for manufacturers materials and quality of workmanship

Download the Aurora Filters Brochure