The Next Generation of Vacuum Tray Drying

CakeStand™ is the next generation of vacuum tray drying technology, delivering precision, efficiency, and compliance across pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, fine chemical, and battery manufacturing industries.

With direct heating shelves for uniform drying and a modular design for scalability, CakeStand™ adapts to lab activities up to commercial production. Engineered for advanced containment and hygienic processing, it ensures safe, consistent, and regulatory-compliant drying for high-value materials.

CakeStand™ Vacuum Tray Dryers - Front

Advanced Features of CakeStand™ Vacuum Tray Dryers

  • Shorter lead times – Faster drying cycles reduce processing time.

  • Lower operational costs – Optimised energy efficiency improves cost-effectiveness.

  • Unmatched drying uniformity – Direct heating shelves ensure consistent results.

  • Regulatory compliance – Designed for strict cGMP and FDA requirements.

  • Futureproof scalability – Modular design adapts to evolving production needs.

Features & Benefits

Designed to support R&D activities in the lab, scaling up to industrial vacuum tray dryer applications, CakeStand™ offers:

  • Customisable configurations to meet specific process requirements.

  • Scalable solutions for laboratory, pilot, and full-scale production environments.

  • Seamless integration with process automation to optimise efficiency
CakeStand™ Vacuum Tray Dryer Type E

CakeStand™ ensures uniform drying with direct heating shelves, providing validated temperature uniformity between the different levels.

This technology enhances heat transfer, reduces drying times, and ensures batch consistency, making it the ideal vacuum drying oven for critical applications.

Vacuum Tray Dryer

CakeStand™ meets the highest industry standards for hygiene and compliance, with:

  • Suspended shelves to eliminate product traps and improve cleanability.

  • Full metallic internal surfaces with controlled finishes for easy validation.

  • Front flat metallic door for streamlined wipe-down in cleanrooms and isolators.

  • Integrated Wash-in-Place (WIP) system for automated and efficient cleaning.

  • Inert gas purging to prevent oxidation, ensure material stability and provide safe conditions in the presence of explosive solvents.
cGMP Compliant Logo

For pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and fine chemical processes involving potent compounds, CakeStand™ offers:

  • Downflow booth integration for enhanced operator safety.

  • Cleanroom through-wall installation to minimise the footprint in valuable controlled spaces.

  • Glove-box/isolator compatibility for high-containment environments.

  • ATEX-certified configurations for handling explosive or volatile substances safely.

Tray Dryer integrated in Isolator

Engineered for precision and compliance, CakeStand™ can be provided as a standalone system or with advanced automation, featuring:

  • Pre-set process recipes for repeatable, high-quality results.

  • Temperature and Vacuum control integration for optimised performance.
  • Compliance with GAMP 5 and FDA 21 CFR Part 11 for secure data logging.
Microsphere Refiner HMI Graphic

Need help identifying the right solution for your process?

Completing our online process questionnaire leads to timely, informed and efficient discussions.

Whether you are looking for a simple vacuum tray dryer or an all-in-one solution with automated recipes, we can help with dimensioning the optimum model/size for your application, reviewing factors such as expected drying time, end-point moisture level contents, etc. Submit your details now.

Technical Overview – Sizes and Materials of Construction

Scalable Solutions for Diverse Process Requirements

CakeStand™ is available in a range of sizes up to 13 m², offering flexibility for laboratory, pilot, and full-scale production. Each chamber size can be configured with different numbers of direct heating shelves, optimising batch capacity and drying efficiency.

  • Customisable shelf configurations to meet specific process needs
  • Typical cake thickness: 1 cm – 5 cm for optimal drying performance
Vacuum Tray Dryers - CakeStand Range

Other configurations are available upon request, please liaise with your PSL point of contact.

 

Model Name Type A Type B Type C Type D Type E
Typical number of Shelves (min / max) 2 / 4 2 / 4 3 / 6 7 / 10 9 / 12
Usable Shelf Area (min / max) 0.21 / 0.42 m² 0.75 / 1.5 m² 2.0 / 4.0 m² 5.5 / 8.0 m² 9.5 / 13.0 m²
Chamber Volume 140 L 350 L 530 L 1350 L 2150 L
Downflow Booth Integration Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PSL GloveBox Integration Yes No No No No

High-Quality Materials for Durability and Compliance

CakeStand™ is constructed from industry-proven materials to ensure durability, compliance, and contamination-free processing.

Standard materials of construction (MoC):

  • 304L Stainless Steel
  • 316L Stainless Steel
  • Alloy C22

Alternative materials available on request – contact PSL for customised options.

Designed to meet cGMP, ATEX, and industry hygiene standards, CakeStand™ delivers reliable and scalable drying solutions for pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, fine chemical, and battery manufacturing applications.

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FAQs

A tray dryer is dimensioned by considering the useful shelf area (in m²) that will be required. Being a batch process, it will be important to know what is the volume of slurry/wet solids that need to be dried.

It will also be important to know what is the maximum thickness of product that your process can accommodate in the trays. As a rule of thumb, we don’t recommend going any higher than 50mm, but some products require limiting to thinner layers to have a performant drying.

CakeStand™ Tray Dryers are very much a batch process as the product physically sits within the vacuum heated chamber for a certain amount of time before being removed.

The CakeStand™ Tray Dryer has been used for semi-continuous processes. If you use several units you can alternate by using one and starting the next one in desynchronisation.

PSL’s Cakestand™ Vacuum Tray Dryer is designed for using a circulating fluid through the shelves for temperature control. Our design is capable of being used in safe area or Hazardous Area (explosive atmospheres) regardless.

The individual shelf control also allows isolation of certain shelves from the fluid circulation if they are not used, resulting in a more energy efficient process.

Using circulating fluid technology also means active cooling can be used for bringing back faster the tray dryer chamber to safe atmospheric conditions for product unloading.

Whether you are looking for a simple vacuum tray dryer or an all-in-one solution with automated recipes, complete our online process questionnaire. We can then advise which CakeStand™ Tray Dryer(s) will meet your process needs.

Our experts will guide you in dimensioning the optimum unit/size for your application. We will review factors such as expected drying time, end-point moisture level contents, etc.

Find Out More

If you are looking for more detailed information on CakeStand™ Vacuum Tray Dryers download the brochure here.

CakeStand Brochure Cover 2024