Patent ID: 8357331
Filing Date: 2013-01-22
Classification: A61L

Abstract:
1. A sterilization system, comprising: a source of a liquid sterilant; a plurality of vaporizers that independently inject vaporized sterilant into a carrier gas at differently adjustable rates, each vaporizer including a separate liquid sterilant regulator for simultaneously, variably, and independently controlling a rate of injection of sterilant into the vaporizer; at least one supply line for transporting the sterilant vapor from each vaporizer to different regions of an enclosure to be sterilized; and a network of interconnected controllers comprising (a) a plurality of serially interconnected control units, each control unit controlling an associated vaporizer to adjust independently the rate at which the associated vaporizer injects vaporized sterilant so as to provide each of the regions with a selected concentration of sterilant vapor, and (b) a master control unit configured to control each control unit over the network to coordinate the aggregate injection of sterilant vapor; wherein the master control unit is one of the plurality of control units and any one of the plurality of control units can become the master control unit for all of the control units; and wherein the network of interconnected controllers automatically determines which control unit is the master control unit and all of the remaining control units automatically accept process control from the master control unit.