Vacuum Decay Leak Testing
What you should know about vacuum decay leak testing
A vacuum decay leak testing comprises of a highly-sensitive differential pressure transducer to read pressure in a vacuum chamber to determine leaks. Users generally are required to establish a test method and test standard for their products.
The vacuum decay leak testers offer a high accuracy and testing reliability in the production environment, making it as indispensable for industries that deals with degradable, high-value products such as food and pharmaceuticals. These industries generally implement a stringent quality control system as contaminations and defects of any kinds are not tolerable.
How does a Vacuum Decay Leak Testing Work?
Sealtick’s vacuum decay leak testing machine includes a vacuum chamber, vacuum pump and a highly sensitive differential pressure transducer. The chamber can be modified according to the packaged product being tested to minimize the air surrounding the packages for more accurate readings.
Our leak testers can be initiated by simply inserting the package in the vacuum chamber and close the lids. The system only requires basic utilities, such as air and power, to operate. Once the test starts, vacuum is created around the package using the vacuum pump and isolated. Then, the pressure is allowed to decay towards the atmospheric pressure. Users need to determine the acceptable leak rate based on the pressure reading for accurate PASS/FAIL determination.
What Types of Products can be Tested using Vacuum Decay Leak Testing Machine?
Vacuum decay leak testing machines can be an effective solution for many foods and pharmaceutical products and packages as long as the packages contain headspace. Some examples include:
- Flexible bags and pouches
- screw-capped bottles
- Parenteral vial packages
- Autoinjectors
- Food products including milk powder, sandwich boxes, biscuits, snack foods, ready-to-eat salads, animal foods, etc.
- Canned food products
Why Vacuum Decay Leak Testing Machines are Highly Reliable?
- Non-Destructive Leak–Testing
The packages are not stressed and compressed during the test. Therefore, the tested packages can be returned to the production line if they pass the test, minimising production waste.
- Automated Test Validation – Unlike water bath testing and other manual testing methods, the results from vacuum decay leak testing machines do not depend on the operator’s decision. For example, in a water bath test, if the operator is unable to see the location of the leak, then bubbles emerging from the leak location may be missed. Similar situation may also happen over long period of working hours. On the other hand, the results of vacuum decay leak tester depend on the pressure decay based on the reading from the differential pressure transducers, therefore, the tests are objective and more reliable.
The integration of vacuum decay leak testing equipment offers significant improvement in waste minimisation and test turnover time. SealTick offers high-quality, reliable vacuum decay packaging leak testers which are locally designed and manufactured in Australia. Our packaging leak testers are primarily targeted for use in food and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, however, it can be used for testing any types of packaging as long as they contain headspace.
Call us on 03 9540 5100 to speak with one of our experts for more information.