GORE® LYOGUARD® Freeze-Drying Trays

Protect Your Operators and Eliminate Tray Cleaning

For over 20 years, manufacturers have trusted GORE Lyoguard Trays to help minimize the risk of exposure to liquid or lyophilized active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and Highly-Potent APIs, and enable operators to spend less time worrying about product ejection and cleaning.

These fully enclosed disposable trays are ideal bulk lyophilization containers, because the GORE Membrane — an integrated 100% ePTFE tray cover — can enable improved process efficiencies and yields, and reduced risk of operator exposure.

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Data Sheet: GORE Lyoguard Freeze-Drying Tray

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Features & Benefits

Applications

Addressing unmet needs in bulk tray lyophilization

Explore the advantages of LYOGUARD single-use disposable freeze-drying trays over traditional stainless steel trays for lyophilization. These innovative trays feature a GORE Membrane - a 100% ePTFE integrated tray cover, which offers: 

Enhanced contamination protection: A built-in barrier that prevents contaminants from entering.
Secure containment: A permanently attached cover that safely contains the product, unlike removable covers on steel trays.
Efficient lyophilization: A high vapor transmission rate for effective removal of water and solvent vapors.

The GORE LYOGUARD Freeze-Drying Tray is a unique replacement for open stainless-steel trays and other containers traditionally used for the lyophilization process. Neither open trays nor trays with improvised wraps or covers can match the unique combination of performance benefits that GORE LYOGUARD Freeze-Drying Trays provide.

The GORE Difference

Tray Top

The tray top features an integrated GORE Membrane and a threaded fill-port for easy filling. The microporous membrane optimizes vapor transmission for efficient drying while preventing product fly-out, minimizing spills, and reducing cleanup risks.

ePTFE Membrane

This 100% ePTFE membrane is designed with a surface that is chemically inert, biocompatible, non-particulating, and thermally stable, ensuring it meets the stringent requirements for sensitive pharmaceutical applications.

Tray Base

The flexible, thin-film tray base ensures efficient, uniform heat transfer by conforming to lyophilizer shelves when tray is filled.

LYOGUARD Applications

GORE LYOGUARD Freeze-Drying Trays streamline processing by eliminating tray cleaning operations while working with various fluid and lyophilized drug products. The integrated GORE Membrane ensures exceptional mass transfer, while the thin, flexible tray bottom enables efficient thermal transfer. 

These trays simplify filling and freeze-drying by reducing contamination risks, operator exposure, and product loss from fly-out or ejection. They also minimize the chance of spills, enhancing safety by reducing risk of operator exposure and reduce product loss in any lyophilized drug development process.

GORE LYOGUARD Trays vs Competitors

	GORE LYOGUARD Trays	Tray Covers or Improvised Wraps
Handling	Integrated top, no need for separate covers	Require extra handling to install/remove
Cleaning	Covered trays are single-use; no cleaning	Require extra labor to clean after use
Spills/Fly-Outs	Effectively block contents from escaping	Vulnerable to leaks, spills, fly-outs
Contamination	Effectively reduces risk of product contamination	Vulnerable to external contaminants

	GORE LYOGUARD Trays	Open Stainless-Steel Trays
Filling Requirements	The integrated top membrane minimizes splash risk, eliminating the need for special precautions, and allows faster filling for improved productivity	Low speed filling in Class-A environment, close to dryer loading area, required to minimize splashing
Tray Handling	The integrated top membrane protects the product, reducing splash and fly-out risks, ensuring flexibility during filling, loading, unloading, and transport. Trays are stackable for transport and post-lyophilization storage	Requires multiple slow and careful manipulations to fill, load, download, and transport open trays without incident. Trays cannot be stacked
Impact on Thermal Transfer	Flexible, thin film base provides uniform tray-to-shelf contact, minimizing air gaps and improving thermal transfer	Stainless-steel trays may warp creating inconsistent tray-to-shelf contact, resulting in poor thermal transfer
Contamination	Efficient barrier protection effectively reduces risk of contamination	Open stainless-steel trays have no barrier protection to reduce the risk of contamination
Fly-Out	Reduced fly-out risk ensures high productivity and yields, with fewer unplanned clean-ups to disrupt workflow	Prone to fly-out, leading to reduced production yields and increased cleanup needs
Product Recovery	Fast, simple recovery process: use integrated fill-port or cut bottom film to recover product	Spatula use requires a slow, careful process
Remedial Cleanings	By protecting against spills and fly-outs, the need for additional remedial cleanings or validations is effectively reduced	After spills or fly-out, cleaning of freeze dryer requires additional validation, consuming worker time and resources

Learn More About GORE LYOGUARD Below

An Innovation for Lyophilization

Open stainless-steel trays are the norm for lyophilization, but that doesn’t mean they’re ideal. Introduce yourself to the only single-use, self-contained tray on the market. GORE LYOGUARD Freeze-Drying Trays offer a number of benefits for the synthesis of peptides and oligonucleotides.

Contain Product and Costs

In traditional freeze-drying processes using open trays, drug product can escape the tray into the lyophilization chamber. GORE LYOGUARD Freeze-Drying Trays help prevent product ejection for less mess and less product loss.

Easier Filling, Less Spilling

Filling open trays can leads to product spills, which creates messes, wastes product and exposes workers to potentially hazardous APIs. GORE LYOGUARD Freeze-Drying Trays feature an innovative top membrane and spout that makes tray filling easier and safer.

Get a Handle on Handling

Stainless-steel trays are challenging to handle because drug product can spill, exposing operators to active pharmaceutical ingredients. GORE LYOGUARD Freeze-Drying Trays enclose liquids completely, preventing spills and making tray handling more efficient.

Never Clean Another Tray

Single-use lyophilization trays don’t need to be cleaned, which saves pharmaceutical companies and drug manufacturers time and money. GORE LYOGUARD Freeze-Drying Trays are the only single-use, self-contained tray on the market.