Nutek Expands E-Beam Sterilization Offering

Hayward, Calif., Nutek Corp. is expanding its electron beam (E-beam) contract sterilization business with the addition of SmartEO ethylene oxide (EO) sterilization services. According to the company, SmartEO is the only program in the industry that provides ethylene oxide sterility solutions and an integrative approach for the entire product lifecycle—from concept, design, and testing to packaging, validation, and high-volume production SmartEO also provides a seamless transition with the expertise needed for companies moving from EO to E-beam, company officials noted.

SmartEO includes:
• Turnkey EO sterilization meeting or exceeding ISO 11135 and SAL protocol requirements;
• Quick standard turnaround of 72 hours;
• Use of Nutek’s E-beam and EO R&D Innovation Center in Silicon Valley, Calif., for designing and testing sterility of new products;
• Ability to schedule sterilization experts to help with all phases of the life cycle—R&D, compliance, design, test, packaging, protocols, validation, and production; and
• Capitalization of the company’s proprietary approaches to custom requirements.

“The SmartEO expansion is a direct response to our current E-beam customers voicing a strong preference to work exclusively with Nutek for all of their sterilization needs, including products that require EO,” said Larry Nichols, chief operating officer of Nutek. “Needless to say, Nutek is extremely pleased, not only with the value our customers place on us, but equally with our ability to offer them the full range of sterilization services they want and deserve. We discovered that we could develop competitively priced EO services with high-end benefits by tweaking several aspects of our efficiency models and by applying the same customer driven culture Nutek is known for. We always sterilize a box free of charge as our way of saying ‘thank you for giving us a try.’”

Expansion with ethylene oxide also made sense because Nutek is experiencing growth across multiple sectors that use materials requiring the modality, including health and medical, pharmaceutical, veterinary, and packaging. An increasing number of those companies are interested in exploring a transition to E-beam, but lack the expertise and resources to accommodate it, company officials said.

Nutek Corporation was founded in 1990. The company provides on-demand sterilization, microbiology, crosslinking, and expert consultative services to the medical device, biopharma, veterinary, packaging, and other industries using its Sterilization by Design service.