ABB drives play a key role in the cleanroom infrastructure of Bharat Biotech, India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer. The inbuilt application functions of ABB’s ACS560 drives help in maintaining the right environmental condition.

Manufacturing of vaccines is a complex process and needs a cleanroom environment to deliver the desired output. Cleanroom manufacturing environments are utilized as a part of specialized industrial production or scientific research and require high levels of flexibility, safety, and performance. Proper temperature, humidity, airflow, air pressure (positive or negative), and other conditions are mandatory to provide a safe vaccine without any risk of contamination.

ABB’s ACS560 drives are playing a vital role in Bharat Biotech ‘s cleanroom infrastructure, where the company manufactures ‘Covaxin’, India’s first indigenous vaccine for Covid-19. Bharat Biotech supplied 20 million doses for the national vaccination roll-out in April and is targeting to produce 700 million doses per year.

"Domestic production of medicine and vaccines has become imperative at this stage of the pandemic. Our endeavor is to support our customers and other stakeholders with our products and solutions and ease the process," said A R Madhusudan, president, Drive Products, Motion India.

"Part of ABB’s all-compatible drives portfolio, the ACS560 is easy to commission, use and enables higher productive use of energy. Our drives are also installed at other pharmaceutical companies in India, which are manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines for the country," added Madhusudan.

One of the most critical aspects of cleanroom HVAC systems is air filtration. Not only do these systems control temperature, humidity, and air pressure, they also control the ventilation within the cleanroom, including the direction, speed, and filtration of air as it flows into and out of the space. The inbuilt application functions of ABB drives help in maintaining the right environmental condition at Bharat Biotech’s vaccine manufacturing facility. It also helps in saving energy by running the motors at partial loads. ABB India’s channel partner, Microsys Automation, has supplied and commissioned the drives.