ASME BPE Conference

30 December

Indu Conley Inducted at Recent ASME BPE Conference

The Bioprocess Equipment group of ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) recently held meetings in San Juan, Puerto Rico from 12 to 15 January. DPS’s Ray Foley (Director of Project Management) and Indu Conley (Department Manager, Process Engineering) participated over the four days of working sessions.

ASME BPE provides the requirements applicable to the design of equipment used in the bioprocessing, pharmaceutical and personal-care products industries, as well as other applications with relatively high levels of hygienic requirements. It covers materials, design, fabrication, inspections, testing and certification.

BPE members serve on committees that develop and refine industry bioequipment standards used worldwide. These committees include a cross section of end-users, engineers, and manufacturers. Ray has been a member for over 15 years. He currently serves on the System Design and Dimension & Tolerances committees. During the recent session, Indu was officially welcomed as a BPE member and now also now serves on the System Design Committee with Ray.

ASME-BPE was founded in response to widespread industry requests for standardization. The organization is the leading standard on how to design and build equipment and systems used in the production of biopharmaceuticals. It incorporates current best-practices for enhancing product purity and safety.

Companies that rigorously apply ASME-BPE can achieve production efficiencies, lower development and manufacturing costs, and increase quality and safety, while complying with regulations. Typical organizations that derive these benefits include regulatory agencies, multinational corporations, plant owners, pressure-equipment fabricators, designers, constructors, materials suppliers, inspection organizations, and others.

Membership in ASME BPE requires very active participation and contributions from every member on a regular basis. New topics from the last revision include:

Testing procedures and acceptance criteria for valve diaphragms
Chromatography requirements
Polymeric hygienic unions
Steam to/through connections
Shelf-life, storage, and expiration date requirements for single-use equipment
Radar level and temperature sensors
Acceptance criteria for a variance in luster
Adoption of the CA-1 standard

Good luck to Indu as she begins her BPE membership. She will undoubtedly make numerous important contributions as Ray has been doing for many years.