Modernization of an Old Soviet Autoclave

Before modernization, the Soviet autoclave was essentially just a barrel filled with water into which steam was supplied. Control was done manually... There was no circulation inside the autoclave, except for the natural one, which caused an uneven temperature field and, as a result, to maintain the sterilizing effect, the temperature needed to be significantly raised, leading to overheating the product at the center. With such a scheme, there was one more problem: significant energy was wasted heating the excessive amount of water. Also, the whole process of sterilization was manual. Well, it was a mess. I took care of the mechanical part of the project, and my brother wrote the program and assembled the electronic hardware. The freshly modified autoclave had circulation pipes and a pump, water level, pressure, and temperature sensors, control valves, a control panel, and a bunch of auxiliary components. The whole process of sterilization was fully automated and did not require manual control or supervision. It turned out to perform really well. Experiments with thermocouples that were placed into several cans in different zones showed that the dispersion of the temperature field was pretty good. The modified autoclave had performance very similar to modern horizontal autoclaves but cost way less than "western analogs". The prime cost was about $7000. For comparison, European or USA autoclaves of similar capacity could cost up to $200,000 - $300,000 (the variety of prices was pretty broad) new and $70,000 used. Obviously, for us, that was all the money in the world. The first modernized autoclave was installed at the factory where I used to work. It has been successfully working for about 10 years since then. During this period, we modernized and sold 3 more.