PDA Technical Glossary

PDA Technical Glossary

PDA Technical Reports are highly valued membership benefits because they offer expert guidance and opinions on important scientific and regulatory topics and are used as essential references by industry and regulatory authorities around the world. These reports include terms which explain the material and enhance the reader’s understanding.

The database presented here includes the glossary terms from all current technical reports. The database is searchable by keyword, topic, or by technical report. Each definition provided includes a link to the source technical report within the  PDA Technical Report Portal.

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Air Removal Test
A test used to evaluate air removal and steam penetration in an empty sterilizer that is used for porous/hard goods load sterilization (e.g., Bowie-Dick Test, DART, Lantor Cube, Browns’ Test). (TR01) (TR 48)
Source:
Cycle Phases
A discrete series of sterilizer process steps (such as, heat-up, exposure and cool-down) performed sequentially that represent a complete sterilization cycle. (TR48)
Source:
Dryness Fraction
An absolute measure of the actual latent heat of a sample of steam relative to the theoretical latent heat of saturated steam. (TR01) (TR48)
Source: