Veriteq Data Loggers Help Relocate U.S. Biotech Company with Wireless Validation

By Peter Caulfield

Validation Technologies, Inc., a San Diego based specialist in validation services for the health care industry, recently moved an entire biotechnology company across town. The relocation was complicated and intricate - and documenting the company's temperature-controlled chambers in transit was especially challenging. But thanks, in part, to Veriteq's wireless validation VL-2000 temperature and humidity data loggers and VL-1000-VLT ultra-low temperature data loggers, the move and the documentation of the chambers went off without a hitch.

According to Kai Schumann, a Validation Engineer with the company, the relocation was made far easier and more efficient than it would have been using traditional data acquisition equipment. Schumann attributes this to the Veriteq loggers' "wireless" battery operation, small size, and rugged performance qualities.

"Our client had nearly 100 temperature-controlled freezers, refrigerators and incubators that had to be fully monitored and documented before, during, and after the move", says Schumann. "Several of these chambers contained priceless stability studies that would have been extremely difficult to document if the Veriteq loggers hadn't been available."

Schumann adds that an important feature of the Veriteq data loggers is their ability to record temperature and humidity without having to be connected to 110-volt power sources. "The beauty of the Veriteq loggers is that, once they are in place, they work independently of external power," he says. "We were able to obtain complete documentation during the move by placing several loggers in strategic locations inside the chambers. Furthermore, the loggers are really rugged and aren't affected if the equipment they're placed in is roughly handled."

In contrast to Veriteq data loggers, the external power connections used by traditional, wired data loggers can be dislocated during a move, resulting in lost data.

To relocate the biotechnology company, VTI had to move several dozen freezers that were set at -80°C and that contained millions of dollars of product. VTI used the VL-1000-VLT ultra-low temperature data loggers to document two main conditions: first, the several hours the freezers weren't connected to a power source and, second, the period during which their temperatures re-stabilized after they were placed in the new facility and their power was switched on again. The printed-out data and graphs were then included with the change control documentation for the individual freezers.

Schumann says his client was very pleased with how VTI organized and carried out the move. "Our client is thrilled with the amount and quality of data the Veriteq loggers generated," he says.

Veriteq dataloggers enable VTI to deliver superior validation services to its many clients across the United States and Canada, Schumann says. "We are now able to deal with difficult thermal mapping situations, such as the relocation application I just described. We can also do room and warehouse temperature qualifications without having to string miles of thermocouple wire throughout the facility," he says.

Thermal-mapping large warehouses and working cold rooms is difficult because of the presence of workers and equipment in the rooms while the mapping takes place. "Warehouses, in particular, are full of forklift trucks going back and forth,"Schumann says. "If a thermocouple is run over by a forklift, it needs to be replaced and the entire mapping study has to be done all over again. The result can be failed validation studies and cost overruns."

Avoiding a failed study in a large warehouse more than pays for the cost of the Veriteq data loggers when the labor savings of thermocouple setup and placement are taken into account, Schumann says.

VTI has been using Veriteq data loggers since mid-2003. Schumann says the company uses the loggers in all its branches around North America. "Shipping the loggers in a small padded case is much easier and more cost-effective than shipping bulky and heavy equipment, like we used to do," he says. "Traditional temperature mapping data loggers are also much more prone to damage by rough handling during shipment due to their weight and complexity."