growing crystals under high temperatures and pressures.
To be effective against spore forming bacteria and viruses, autoclaves need to:
Have steam in direct contact with the material being sterilized (i.e. loading of items is very important).
Create vacuum in order to displace all the air initially present in the autoclave and replacing it with steam.
Implement a well designed control scheme for steam evacuation and cooling so that the load does not perish.
The efficiency of the sterilization process depends on two major factors. One of them is the thermal death time, i.e. the time microbes must be exposed to at a particular temperature before they are all dead. The second factor is the thermal death point or temperature at which all microbes in a sample are killed.
The steam and pressure ensure sufficient heat is transferred into the organism to kill them. A series of negative pressure pulses are used to vacuum all possible air pockets, while steam penetration is maximized by application of a succession of positive pulses