Removing Air from the Internal Chamber
Air in the chamber impedes heat transfer to microorganisms. Several methods are available
to remove air from the chamber. Among them, single air evacuation and pulsatingair
evacuation are used to reach a specific cycle configuration. Single air evacuation is less
effective and obtains residual values on the order of 1% of the initial amount of air inside
the chamber. Pulsating air evacuation is applied in three steps. At the end of the first pulse,
15% of the amount of initial air remains in the chamber, and at the end of the second and
third pulses, 2.25%–0.4%, respectively, of the initial air is retained.
The configuration of the sterilization cycle must account for the permeability of wrappers
and other packaging material. Appropriate use of these will reduce the processing time.