Foxboro pH sensors help pharmaceutical yield

Invensys customer Gilead Alberta has received an award for improving pharmaceutical batch processing efficiency while substantially reducing costs, using the advanced-technology Foxboro pH sensors

Gilead Alberta is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and commercialises innovative therapeutics to advance the care of patients suffering from life-threatening diseases worldwide.

The Plant Services Best Practice Award recognises management technique, work process, product, and service implementations that improve industrial plant performance, maintenance, reliability and asset management.

Winners are selected by the more than 105,000 subscribers of Plant Services magazine, who judge entries based on short- and long-term return on investment, innovation, and breadth of application.

Gilead Alberta won the Best Practices award in the "Equipment" category for working with Invensys Foxboro Measurements and Instruments Division to develop an advanced pH sensor to assure consistent product quality and maximise batch yields in their harsh process environment.

The Foxboro 871PH Series sensor enabled Gilead to complete a pH adjustment in just three hours, rather than the 18 hours to 24 hours previously required.

"With the Foxboro 871PH sensor, yields have increased and cycle times have been shortened.

When you add the increase in quality, the improved pH readings by one sensor can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars per year," says Robert Pastushak, senior technical/operational supervisor, Gilead Alberta.

According to Pastushak, the 871 PH sensor is also very durable.

"The sensor we deployed more than two years ago looks like it did the day we bought it.

Previously, as many as three probes, at approximately USD600 per probe, would fail while processing just one batch".

says Pastushak.

Ash Grove Cement, another Invensys customer, was also selected as a runner up in the Plant Services Best Practices Award "Software/Systems" category for expanding the scope of its computerised maintenance management system, to reduce inventory and improve maintenance efficiency through the use of the Invensys comprehensive Avantis EAM (enterprise asset management) solution.

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