Andrew Van Breugel, Operations Manager at Douglas Pharmaceuticals approached Saffron after viewing the company’s website; www.saffron-uk.com. The resulting dialogue culminated in Saffron producing a bespoke containment system which incorporated all the features required for an operator to control and work comfortably in the environment of his/her choice.

The Problem:
Douglas Pharmaceuticals Fiji Ltd wanted to be able to “process” oxygen sensitive drug substances in a laboratory under anaerobic conditions with low Actinic lighting. They wanted to be able to do this using a microbalance (accurate down to 4 decimal places) which needed to be contained within the isolator.

The Solution:
Saffron worked very closely to fulfil the stringent needs of this company and was able to provide:

• A bespoke designed glovebox which was a hybrid between an isolator and a glovebox
• Both argon/nitrogen or air atmosphere capability
• A percentage oxygen meter, providing feedback on the oxygen level
• An automated purge feature to switch from normal atmosphere to inert gas modes and back again to achieve low percentage oxygen levels
• A glovebox pressure control via air or argon/nitrogen top-up, depending on mode selected
• HEPA filtration on internal atmosphere with a re-circulation pump to provide a high filtration rate (30-40 air changes per hour)
• Dual mode lighting – both standard and low actinic lighting
• A bespoke heavy duty glovebox designed to provide adequate support for microbalance, accurate to within 4 decimal places

The Benefits:
The bespoke designed glovebox has provided Douglas Pharmaceuticals with the combined features of both an isolator and a glovebox

• One product only – hybrid covering all requirements
• A custom made box to customer’s specific requirements
• Two boxes in one – changeable at the flick of a switch