Product Overview
A wet pack — visible moisture inside a sterile-processed instrument tray — voids the sterility assurance and forces a surgical or dental team to cancel or reschedule the procedure, and its usual root cause is wet steam reaching the autoclave. Indeeco Sure-Steam™ is a patent-pending steam monitoring and control system paired with a small supplemental in-line electric heater: it watches the steam supply pressure and inlet / outlet temperature in real time, logs the data for diagnostics, alerts staff to supply faults before they reach the chamber, and adds up to a 2°F boost to keep the steam dry as it enters the sterilizer. It is a controls and monitoring system — the answer for protecting a steam sterilizer from wet packs, not a general-purpose heater line.
Related Indeeco lines
Circulation Heaters — the in-line circulation-heater platform the supplemental heater is built on
Heater Control Panels — matched SCR / contactor / step control panels for process heating
Immersion Heaters — sealed elements dropped into a tank or vessel of liquid or gas
Process-Air Heaters — heat a forced-air stream in an oven, dryer, autoclave, or duct
Key Features & Benefits
- Keeps procedures on schedule — a wet pack voids sterility and cancels or reschedules the case; Sure-Steam dries the steam supply at the point of use so packs come out dry and the day’s schedule holds. The whole point: no wet pack, no canceled procedure.
- Warns you before a load is lost, not after — the system alarms on a failing steam supply — low pressure or low temperature — while there is still time to react, instead of leaving staff to discover the moisture when the tray is opened. Catches the supply fault before it reaches the chamber.
- Gives you the data when the sterilizer is blamed — every supply pressure and temperature reading is logged, so when a sterilizer is suspect you can show whether the steam supply was actually in spec — the diagnostic trail an intermittent fault otherwise hides. Turns “the sterilizer is acting up” into an answerable question.
- Boosts the steam instead of replacing the boiler — a small in-line heater adds just enough energy to dry marginal steam at the sterilizer, so a borderline house steam supply is salvaged without re-plumbing the boiler room. Fixes the steam where it matters, at the machine.
- One panel covers several monitoring points — a single control panel watches up to four steam process variables, so multiple sterilizers or multiple supply points report through one system instead of one box per machine. One panel, the whole steam supply.
Specifications
- How the system works
- Sure-Steam™ is a steam monitoring and control system paired with a supplemental in-line electric heater. It watches the steam supply reaching a sterilizer — pressure and inlet / outlet temperature — in real time, logs the readings for diagnostics, and uses the supplemental heater to add a small amount of energy that keeps the steam dry and saturated as it enters the autoclave. Drying marginal supply steam at the point of use is what prevents a wet pack.
- Monitored process variables
- Monitors the steam supply to the sterilizer: supply pressure and inlet and outlet temperature across the supplemental heater. A single control panel can monitor up to four steam process variables at once.
- Control method
- Closed-loop supplemental heat under SCR power control — the controller modulates the in-line heater to hold the steam dry, rather than switching it on and off. Safety and backup contactors back up the SCR.
- Sensors & instrumentation
- Type K thermocouples on the steam inlet, the outlet, and a high-limit sensor attached to the heater element sheath, plus a 4–20 mA pressure transmitter on the outlet nozzle.
- Supplemental in-line heater
- A 3 kW in-line circulation heater with a 316 stainless-steel vessel, an Incoloy 800 sheath, 1‑1/2″ NPT inlet / outlet, fiberglass insulation in a 304 stainless-steel jacket, and a NEMA 4X terminal enclosure, furnished for horizontal ceiling mounting. (This is the as-supplied accessory spec; it is not a configurable heater line.)
- Supplemental temperature rise
- Adds up to a 2°F temperature rise across the heater — the small energy boost needed to dry marginal saturated steam, not to generate or superheat it.
- Controller / HMI
- MCT4 touch-screen controller with an illuminated over-temperature reset and an illuminated control-circuit selector.
- Monitoring capacity
- One panel handles up to four steam process variables — enough to instrument multiple sterilizers or multiple points on a single steam supply from a single panel.
- Data logging & diagnostics
- Logs steam-supply pressure and inlet / outlet temperature over time, giving a record for root-cause review when a sterilizer problem arises — the diagnostic trail that turns an intermittent supply fault into something a technician can actually find.
- Real-time alerts
- Real-time alerts on steam-supply problems — low pressure, low temperature, or other supply faults — so staff are warned before a load is ruined. Dry contacts are provided for a low-pressure alarm.
- Communications
- RS‑485, RS‑232, and Ethernet communication ports; the system reports to a building-management system so the steam-supply data and alarms reach facility operators.
- Power & control
- SCR power controller with safety and backup contactors, a factory disconnect, dry contacts for the low-pressure alarm, and terminals for a customer remote interlock.
- Voltage / phase
- Supplied to the available service voltage and phase; specify the building supply with the order.
- Enclosure
- NEMA Type 4 control-panel enclosure; the supplemental heater carries a NEMA 4X terminal enclosure.
- Approvals & listings
- Control panel is UL / CSA listed.
- Patent status
- Patent pending — U.S. Patent Application No. 63/312577, “Steam Boost System on an Autoclave Steam Sterilizer.”
- Build & lead time
- Custom build-to-order — no published price list, quote-only. Lead times typically run about 3 to 14 weeks depending on configuration, hazardous-area documentation, and code-stamp requirements.
Common Applications
- Hospital and surgical-center steam sterilizers (autoclaves) — protecting sterile instrument loads from wet packs
- Sterile processing departments (SPD / CSSD) running multiple autoclaves on a shared house-steam supply
- Dental facilities with steam sterilizers
- Pharmaceutical and other facilities that depend on dry saturated steam to a steam sterilizer
- Diagnostic monitoring of a steam supply where intermittent wet-pack events need a data trail
Fit limit: Sure-Steam is built to monitor and slightly boost the steam supply to a sterilizer — it dries marginal saturated steam, it does not generate steam or correct a grossly undersized or water-logged supply (see Design & Selection Considerations). For bulk process-fluid or gas heating, the Indeeco circulation (inline) and immersion heater lines apply.
Design & Selection Considerations
- Sure-Steam dries marginal steam — it does not make steam — the supplemental heater adds only a small boost (about 2°F), enough to re-dry saturated steam that has cooled or picked up condensate on the way to the sterilizer. A supply that is grossly undersized, badly water-logged, or far below the sterilizer’s pressure spec is a boiler / piping problem the boost cannot cover. Right tool for damp steam, wrong tool for a failing boiler.
- Decide what you want to monitor up front — one panel covers up to four steam process variables — that is the budget. Map out which sterilizers and which points (pressure, inlet, outlet) you actually need to watch before sizing the system, so the four channels land where the diagnostic value is. Spend the four channels deliberately.
- Wire the alarm and interlock into the workflow — the value of a real-time alert is only realized if it reaches someone — route the dry-contact low-pressure alarm and the building-management feed to where staff will see it, and use the remote-interlock terminals to tie the system into the sterilizer or steam-supply controls. An alarm nobody sees is a wet pack waiting to happen.
- Mount the supplemental heater in the supply line, not a tank — the heater is a small in-line circulation unit furnished for horizontal ceiling mounting on the steam supply piping ahead of the sterilizer; it is sized for the boost, not for bulk heating. Plan the pipe run and the ceiling space for it at the layout stage. It goes in the line that feeds the autoclave.
- Plan the network drop for the data — the data log and alarms are only as useful as the path off the panel — provide for the RS‑485 / RS‑232 / Ethernet connection to the building-management system when you locate the panel, so the history and alerts actually leave the room. Give the diagnostics somewhere to go.
To spec the right Indeeco Sure-Steam system:
Use the input form to send your sterilizer type and steam load, the house-steam supply pressure and temperature at the sterilizer, how many sterilizers (or supply points) you need to monitor, which process variables you want logged and alarmed (pressure, inlet / outlet temperature), the available voltage and phase, the enclosure / mounting environment, and the building-management or alarm connection you want the panel to report to — and we’ll spec the right Sure-Steam panel, supplemental heater, and instrumentation for your facility.
Electric Heating Application Sheet ›Talk to an engineer directly — Scott Prater, Principal · 917-580-0878 · scott@pratertechnical.com
Specifications compiled by Prater Technical Partners from Aspeq Heating Group product datasheets.