FUSION™ & FUSION PLUS ™

IMA life’s Fusion shelves incorporate proprietary brazing and welding technology to construct freeze dryer shelves that are lighter, stronger, thinner, flatter, and have improved heat transfer characteristics when compared to conventional designs.

Conventional designs utilize solid or interlocking steel bars to create flow paths and provide stiffening to the shelves. These bars must be welded to the underside of the shelf surfaces.   This requires heavy stock material to withstand warping when heated unevenly during welding. This adds weight and thickness to the shelves.
The uneven heating can cause distortion of the shelf, which is critical for systems employing automatic loading and unloading equipment. Finally, the bars create areas where product containers resting on the shelves are not efficiently exposed to the heat transfer medium passing through the shelf.

IMA Life’s Fusion shelf utilizes brazing technology that allows the use of lighter materials.  The flow paths are created using hollow tubes that allow the heat transfer fluid to pass through and around.  All tubes are brazed simultaneously so the distorting effects of uneven heating are eliminated.  The result is a shelf that is improved in every aspect.

Fusion Plus shelves add a layer of propriety Teflon-based coating to the underside of each shelf.  With the increase in use of automatic loading systems, an old nuisance has become a major issue; sticking stoppers.  In manually loaded systems, sticking stoppers can be mitigated by operator intervention at the unloading step. 

Not so with automatic systems.  Just a few vials sticking to the underside of a freeze dryer shelf can cause the loss of an entire shelf or even a batch.  Fusion plus solves the problem.  The coating is non-reactive, rugged, and cleanable, can withstand steam sterilization, and does not shed.  Fusion plus has been implemented by major pharmaceutical companies for routine production, having passed exhaustive challenges.