Application areas

Sterility made to order: BGS is your partner for highly effective radiation treatments

Contamination with microorganisms is capable of being reduced to a safe level for a wide range of products. BGS uses beta and gamma rays to achieve a reliable safety standard of your products and applications. This is practically possible in all applications, where pathogenic germs cause danger to human or animal health, or where microorganisms have detrimental effects. These include:

  • Medical devices
  • Pharmaceutical primary packagin
  • Packaging for cosmetics and food
  • Single use materials for biotechnological applications and semiconductor production
  • Raw materials for cosmetics
  • Single use and consumer goods
  • Animal feed
  • Archived documents

Our services go far beyond the mere radiation services: Upon request, we support you already in the development stage. We will advise you on the selection of suitable materials for products and packaging, and the specification of optimal packing schemes for the radiation sterilization carried out later on. This includes, of course, the qualification, validation and related documentation of the sterilization process for your products. In this way, we ensure an optimal workflow across all processing steps.

Medical devices and diagnostics

Service Medizinprodukte BGS StrahlensterelisationIn medicine, bioscience and pharmacy, the sterility requirements are established by numerous standards, laws and regulations. BGS holds the necessary certifications and authorizations required by the strict German legislation on medical devices pursuant to the German law on medical products (MPG – Medizinproduktegesetz), and has many years of experience in dealing with international accreditation and licensing authorities – such as the FDA. Together with you, we can validate the entire production process including the radiation sterilization as a last step with regard to a specified dose range.

Application areas for medical devices and diagnostics:

  • Implants and prostheses
  • Connectors and filters for dialysis
  • Catheters, canulas, blood tube systems
  • Surgical drapes, instruments and gloves
  • Dressings, stitching materials, hydrogels, wound management systems
  • Tube systems, e.g. for infusion and respiration therapy
  • Blood sampling systems
  • Urine cups, stool sampling tubes
  • Petri dishes, microtiter plates, PCR trays, reagent vessels
  • Pipettes and pipette tips
  • Disposable syringes
  • Reagent vessels, handling and sampling materials

Single use materials for laboratory and biotechnology

Service Verbrauchsmaterialien BGS StrahlensterelisationIn many areas, such as biosciences, pharmaceutics, clean room environments or microtechnology, objects of everyday use or disposable items must be free of microorganisms. This is necessary to ensure controlled conditions for sampling, testing or research and to prevent the contamination of valuable products with microorganisms. Beta and gamma rays are increasingly used to guarantee the highest hygienic standards and have become an indispensable aid in the manufacturing process of these products.

Application areas for laboratory and biotechnology:

  • Systems for sampling and testing
  • Petri dishes, microtiter plates, PCR trays, reagent vessels
  • Pipettes and pipette tips
  • Filter and separation systems
  • Dosage systems
  • Disposable syringes
  • Reagent vessels, working materials, sampling equipment
  • Container and dosage systems
  • Packaging material
  • Raw materials
  • Laboratory supplies
  • Animal feed for research purposes
  • Culture media
  • Plant substrates
  • Mineral and plant pigments
  • Enzymes
  • Preparations of animal and plant origin
  • Protective clothing

Packaging and processing equipment

Service Verbrauchsmaterialien BGS StrahlensterelisationRadiation sterilization is used for packaging materials and processing aids made of metal or plastic for the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry, food packaging, and also in biotechnology. In many of these branches of the industry, sterility is a prerequisite for reproducible and high-quality production results. BGS can make an important contribution to the reliability and reproducibility of your production processes through the use of sterile raw materials, packaging and processing materials. In addition, the application of preservatives is able to be minimised through the use of germ-reduced packaging and natural raw materials.

Application areas of packaging materials and processing aids:

  • Tubes, tins, containers, bottles
  • Lids and closures
  • Dosage systems and pump sprayers
  • Bags, beakers
  • Microbiological testing systems
  • Filter systems for the food industry or life sciences
  • Colourants and pigments
  • Fillers
  • Bag-in-box systems (bib), inliners, flexitanks

Consumables and consumer goods

Products intended for end consumers may have a high product risk due to unwanted microbiological contaminations. More and more such consumables and consumer goods are manufactured in distant regions of the world. If manufactured in hot and humid climate zones, the products may arrive at their final destination with seriously high bioburden concentrations after the long sea transport. This applies for example to toys, textiles, leather goods, decorative items and many other utility objects. If the damage is identified after the arrival of the containers at the destination port, time is of the essence.

Since in addition to the risks arising from the germinated products, such as expensive and image-damaging recall actions or complaints, long confirmed delivery dates must often be complied with. Now, rapid action is required. The goods must be sterilized quickly and safely.

Application areas of consumables and consumer goods:

  • Toys in general
  • Wooden toys
  • Dolls, stuffed animals
  • Textiles
  • Leather goods
  • Wooden components or furniture
  • Artists’ materials
  • Décor articles
  • Animal and pet food

Spices and animal feed

Spices and herbs grown in the open countryside may contain bacteria and moulds. If superheated steam is used for sterilization, the vitamin content and colours of the herbs significantly suffer and their flavouring substances, the “soul” of the spices, might even be destroyed. During the sterilization through beta or gamma rays, vitamins and flavours are better preserved due to the very slight temperature increase. Animal feed as well, must reach the end consumer in a hygienically flawless state – without the risk of contamination, for example, caused by salmonella. BGS reliably renders pathogenic microorganisms, moulds and spores harmless, so that the products can reach the market in a flawless state.

Archives and documents

Service Verbrauchsmaterialien BGS StrahlensterelisationMould spores may settle everywhere and spread within hours. If books, shelving units or whole archives are infested with dangerous fungi, expensive restoration measures or even their disposal may be necessary. Mould is also harmful to health: Contact allergies or respiratory infections occur, when employees have contact with contaminated archives. Gamma radiation can destroy obstinate moulds safely, fast and completely. Of course, the materials are completely radiation-free after treatment.

Application areas for archives and documents:

  • Files
  • Paper documents and archives
  • Analogous and digital data carriers
  • Postal items for areas with increased safety requirements
We cooperate with specialised service providers who collect the affected stocks, dry the items and, if necessary, carry out manual dry cleaning after radiation to remove the dead moulds from each book page. Health risks and reinfestation are then excluded. In addition, we have implemented a process for the safe handling of confidential documents.