Electropolishing
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Electropolishing and Passivating for Pharmaceutical Industries
The Pharmaceutical industry has identified the impact and importance of the surface finish for high purity systems. Surface finish is critical to producing and maintaining sterile equipment and systems. The proper surface finish will reduce product adhesion and improve corrosion resistance, both of which are reduce downtime and lower costs. Harrison Electropolishing specializes in electropolishing, mechanical polishing, passivating, de-rouging and cleaning of Pharmaceutical and other high purity processing equipment.
The Pharmaceutical industry has an established guideline for its surface finish requirements, detailed in the ASME BPE (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers - Bioprocessing Equipment) specification. This specification includes six surface finishes that may be used when specifying surface finishes. The following table summarizes the information provided within ASME BPE for the interior surface finishes of bioprocessing equipment and distribution system components.
| Ra Readings for Surfaces | |||||
| Mechanically Polished | |||||
| Surface Designation | Ra Average | Ra Max | |||
| m -in | m m | m -in | m m | ||
| SF1 | 15 | 0.375 | 20 | 0.500 | |
| SF2 | 20 | 0.500 | 25 | 0.625 | |
| SF3 | 25 | 0.625 | 30 | 0.750 | |
| Mechanically Polished and Electropolished | |||||
| Surface Designation | Ra Average | Ra Max | |||
| m -in | m m | m -in | m m | ||
| SF4 | 10 | 0.250 | 15 | 0.375 | |
| SF5 | 15 | 0.375 | 20 | 0.500 | |
| SF6 | 20 | 0.500 | 25 | 0.625 | |
Harrison Electropolishing has long supported efforts by ASME, and other organizations, to standardize the expectations and designations of acceptable surface finishes. Tom Harrison, our company president, is a member of ASME and is currently part of the surface finish subcommittee for ASME BPE. Tom has also served as a board member for ISPE (International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering).
