Less Downtime, Less Repair, Less Headaches Laboratory and medical equipment downtime is costly, anti-productive, and most importantly, avoidable. Consolidated sterilizers are engineered and manufactured to be the most reliable autoclave on the market. Furthermore, we provide customers with a wealth of resources to ensure their sterilizer is running optimally. When maintenance is needed, our nonproprietary parts are available quickly and easily from factory-trained local service companies. For facilitates managers, this translates to less headaches and lower operational costs. See below for some of our services and resources that keep your sterilizers running smoothly. Utility Requirements Having the right utilities in place is key to a successful installation. Our sterilizers can be configured in a number of ways to match the utilities available at your site. The main considerations that need to be addressed are water, steam, electrical, and in some cases compressed air. Water Water is the lifeblood of a autoclave. The quality of water fed into an autoclave and steam generator will drastically impact its lifespan. The table below lists water feed requirements for a CSS autoclave. For more information on why water quality is important, visit here. Total Hardness 0-17 mg/L (85mg/L Max) Alkalinity 50-180 mg/L (350 mg/L Max) Total Dissolved Solids 0-150 mg/L (250 mg/L Max) pH 7.5-8.5 (7.5-9.0 Max) Total Silica 0.1-1.0 mg/L (2.5mg/L Max) Resistivity 2-6 KΩ/cm (26 KΩ/cm Max) If you need to provide clean steam to your chamber, deionized (RO/DI) water is what you will need to supply to the steam generator. In these cases, all the piping on the sterilizer that comes in contact with the process steam will be 316L stainless steel. Steam Connections If your facility has house steam available, it can be used for the autoclave, so long as it is condensate free and 97-100% saturated. The pressure should be between 50-80 PSI dynamic and should have a flow rate of 180#/hr. The line should be insulated and have a facility supplied drip leg with trap that is 18” under steam connection point. Electrical All of our sterilizers require a dedicated 20 amp single outlet for the controls. Additionally, if the sterilizer is configured with its own generator, a three phase power source is needed to power the heaters in the generator. Available voltages are 208, 240, 380, and 480. Additional electrical circuits are needed with some other accessories that can come with your sterilizer, such as pumps for our Liquid Ring Pump and RO System. Drain Connection What goes in must go out! We typically want to see a 3” floor drain located within 5 linear feet from the sterilizer. The unit must be plumbed with a 2-1/2” air gap between the sterilizer drain port and the facility’s floor drain. Other drain connections are acceptable, but it is best to check with us first. Don’t have a drain nearby? We can provide holding tanks and pumps to overcome this obstacle. Setting the Autoclave in Place Just moving the sterilizer to where it is going to live can be a project within itself! Our staff will guide you through this process and educate you on what to look for. When choosing a location for a sterilizer certain modifications may need to be made to the existing space (i.e. installation of a floor drain, construction of a modular wall, etc). In addition, the sterilizer should be located in a space that allows for service access around the sides and back of 18 to 24”. Don’t have that type of space available? No problem. We are able to customize the configuration of the sterilizer (i.e. mount all of the plumbing on one side) to allow for space restrictions. Preventative and Predictive Maintenance The SterilCARE™ Preventative Maintenance Service Program is a scheduled maintenance plan with one of our authorized local service representatives designed to keep your autoclave running at top quality. Read more about the importance of preventive maintenance on The Chamber Blog. Parts Procurement All Consolidated sterilizers are manufactured with non-proprietary parts available from local sources located around the country. Contact us for a service provider and parts distributor in your area. If our local service company is out of stock, we will happily drop-ship parts to your facility. A list of common replacement parts can be found here. Controller Upgrades and Retrofits Upgrading your sterilizer control system is a simple and cost effective way to extend the life of your sterilizer and give it all the modern bells and whistles. Old control systems are replaced with our state-of-the-art Allen Bradley ADV-Series controllers. The entire controller conversion process takes just a few hours to complete and, more importantly, lowers overall cost of ownership and increases reliability. Controller conversion kits are available for upgrading not only Consolidated units but also other manufacturers such as Steris/AMSCO steam sterilizers (add link to AMSCO blog here). In addition to the control system, a a number of “smart options” are available to retrofit your existing autoclave. One option is our WaterEco® water conservation system, which drastically cuts down on water use, and therefore, utility costs. Support & Service All CSS autoclaves can be equipped or retrofitted with our cloud-based monitoring, alerting, and data collection system. This integrated feature allows facilities managers to monitor their autoclaves and view alarm conditions from any internet-ready device. Simply connect the autoclave via Ethernet or Wi-Fi to enjoy the benefits. For additional support and reassurance, CSS offers a feature called SteriNET® Connex. This option allows CSS factory engineers to remotely troubleshoot and diagnose any problems with the autoclave, thereby maximizing uptime and minimizing service calls. Simply connect the autoclave to an Ethernet portal. Online Service Manuals: Contact our service department for a digital copy of the Service Manual for your Consolidated autoclave.. Repairs If you would like to send equipment to Consolidated for evaluation and/or repair, fill out our OEM Repair Request Form, or contact our service department for more information.
2.28.24 Setting up your SPD for Success: 8 Reasons to Own a Backup Autoclave → Steam is the most reliable and effective method for sterilizing medical equipment, and as a result, autoclaves are a fixture in almost every ASC’s sterilization setup. But, as is often the case, there are numerous situations in which ASCs find themselves without sufficient sterile processing capacity or a backup plan for when main units are […]
2.7.24 Consolidated Earns ACT Label, Highlighting Commitment to Sustainability → Have you ever wished that you could review an autoclave’s energy and water use, manufacturing impact, and packaging content similar to how you’d read a nutrition label at the grocery store? That’s the idea behind the ACT Environmental Impact Factor (EIF) label. Short for Accountability, Consistency, and Transparency, the ACT label demonstrates the environmental impact […]
7.12.23 Cordyceps Sterilization: How to Kill “The Last of Us” Parasite → In HBO’s recent adaptation of “The Last of Us,” a popular action-adventure video game, life as we know it is upended by a parasitic fungus that transforms its human hosts into zombies. The culprit? Cordyceps, a real-life genus of fungus which is best known for infecting insects (most famously ants) in much the same manner […]
