What Is Temperature Mapping And What Will It Accomplish?

By Author: sanders poter
Total Articles: 6
Comment this article

The FDA, Health Canada and other regulators are increasingly putting the pressure on drug manufacturers to be in compliance with GMP requirements for controlled temperature storage. This pressure is compounded by the need to eliminate financial risk or loss in addressing related equipment failures within a storage or logistics operation. When consumer safety, product quality, and compliance are all at stake, companies are forced to balance the ROI of these elements with packaging, environmental monitoring programs, and staffing.

Inadequately controlled environments can lead to ineffective medicines, spoiled product, damaged materials and frequent critical equipment failures. This all ads up to wasted dollars. Fortunately the cost of monitoring large warehouses and transportation environments has dropped significantly over the years.
The purpose of temperature (or thermal) mapping is to ensure that all areas of the process equipment or storage area achieve the required temperature. The outcome of the temperature map is to understand the temperature distribution in a storage area, and to define hot or cold ...
... spots of the process equipment or storage area. This takes into account the temperature and density of humidity of warehouses for the storage of environmentally sensitive products.

How is temperature mapping performed?

Infitrak performs the following process for temperature mapping:
1.Create a validation plan and protocol, with logical and scientific justifications for each
2.Identify areas at risk and develop protocol information to determine where the sensors can be fixed to eliminate the risk of products being out-of-range
3.Select the right technology for the right job
4.Set up mapping equipment and conduct a tests in extreme conditions
5.Develop a full report describing the test’s findings and summarize the action to take

Common Issues:
What will a properly designed temperature mapping study tell you?* For warehouses, refrigeration equipment or any storage area, it can help to determine:
Fluctuations in temperature: Frequent changes in temperature in one location can be caused by direct exposure to internal cooling systems or outside air sources:
1.Doors that are habitually left open
2.Lighting
3.Open dock doors in transit area
4.Hallways to non-conditioned locations
5.Air vents from HVAC systems

Hot and cold spots: Hot and cold spots are frequently caused by three different factors
1.Inadequately sized fans that are unable to circulate air
2.Air coming out of the HVAC system
3.Walls or shelving that block airflow

HVAC Efficiency:  Inability to maintain target warehouse temperature. If the overall warehouse temperature can not be maintained, an expert evaluation of the HVAC system is in order.

Test before you invest:
Before investing in new or larger fans, removing unnecessary walls, setting new policy, curtains, or purchasing upgraded HVAC equipment, a study can tell you if it is lower cost to simply rearrange shelves to promote airflow or updating procedures to ensure refrigeration equipment doors are kept closed. Keeping better control of your temperature distribution storage area also can have the affect of reducing your utility costs.

This Content has been taken from: http://infitrak.com/what-is-temperature-mapping-and-how-can-it-save-you-money/

Infitrak is a one-stop resource for GDPs, cold Chain Monitoring and Intelligent Shipping Solutions. We provide integrated expertise in intelligent monitoring which gives benefits like risk reduction and cost control. For more details about our cold chain packaging, please click here at http://infitrak.com/