Pharmaceuticals
versus three times,” says Seitz. “Not only are we mixing fewer times, but labour for weighing, screening and staging prior to mixing has also been reduced.”
When an order comes into the Pro-X facility, the appropriate raw material powders are selected and inspected for quality, screened, weighed and sent to an area where they are staged for blending. “Certain items need special treatment,” explains Seitz. “Some herbal mixtures are too big and need to be ground, while other materials need to be oscillated to reduce clumps. “When running several batches to fill a single order, we were performing these tasks several times,” continues Seitz. “Those tasks are done only once now.”
The preparation stage ensures that materials become free- flowing and ready to enter the blending and grinding area. Since each raw material – anywhere from 2 to 50 powders per blend – has a different bulk density and its own “specific quirks,” operators adjust for the differences by feeding the materials at different times. “For instance, we add the excipients, materials, such as Magnesium Stearate, last to ensure that they are blended throughout the entire batch without affecting their function. If you overblend excipients, they will not produce the desired effect of a good flow of material, solid compression or anti-sticking, which they are intended to accomplish,” says Seitz. “For every product there is a specific order to add materials to the blend to assist in creating a problem free batch.” Once Pro-X formulators determine the sequence in which materials should be fed, each bin of material is forklifted to the top of the structure surrounding the blender where material is gravity discharged in the hopper and, in turn, into the blender which turns approximately two RPM during feeding. “The hopper
allows us to pour raw material into the blender at a rate of 50 kilos per minute,” says Seitz.
“The ability to discharge material directly into the mixer via the
hopper, cut labour by 75%,” continues Seitz. “With the old blender, it took four to five hours to feed the powder by hand or using an auger conveyor.
Achieving 100% uniformity
The mixer is capable of achieving 100% uniformity in less than three minutes, but Pro-X runs longer cycles for absolute insurance of uniform blends. Seitz says: “There are no moving parts inside the mixer, but the mixing flights attached to the interior of the rotating drum picks up the powder and moves it to the front of the blender and then back over itself.” Continuous
www.solidsandbulk.co.uk
March 2010 • Solids & Bulk Handling 23
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