DESCRIPTION OF CONSTRUCTION WORKING AND
APPLICATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL MACHINARY
SUCH AS ROTARY TABLET MACHINE, FLUIDIZED BED
COATED, FLUID ENERGY MILL, DEHUMIDIFIER
AIM:
Description of Construction Working and application of Pharmaceutical machinery Such as
Rotary Tablet Machine, Fluidized Bed Coated, Fluid Energy Mill, Dehumidifier.
1) ROTARY TABLET MACHINE:
It is also called multi station tablet press. It is called rotary machine rotary machine
because the head of the machine that holds the upper punches, dies and lower punches in
place rotates.
Steps involved in manufacturing of tablet:
The material to fed through hopper
The fill cam pulls the lower punches down to a fixed distance and the dies are filled
with material
The quantity of the material filled is larger than the actual amount required, remove
excess amount with the help of spatula
After that, upper punch is lowered and inserted into the dies
The material is compressed and the tablet are formed
After the compression, pulls the upper punches into their top position and
simultaneously lift the lower punches until the tablets are ejected from the dies
Then the tablet is passed through discharge chute
Applications:
It is operated continuously
Used for large scale production
A single rotary press produce 1150 tablets in a minute while double rotary press can
produce 10,000 tablets in a minute
2) FLUIDIZED BED COATER:
Three types of air suspension coater are available, namely top spray coater, wurster or
bottom spray coater, and tangential spray coater. In top spray coater, there is a counter current
(opposite position) it movement of powder particles or pellets and liquid spray. In wurster or
bottom spray coater, there is a concurrent (same direction) movement of powder particles or
pellets and liquid spray. In tangential spray coater, the powder particles or pellets move in a
helical fashion due to spinning rotor disk on the bottom of the equipment.
Steps involved in wurster or bottom spray coater:
The drying inlet air is passed upwards through the bottom perforated plate into the
fluid bed chamber
This air passes to wurster column, in which a spray gun perpendicular to bottom
plate and parallel to the wurster column
This air passes out from the exhaust filters situated at the top of the equipment
The material to be coated is located is loaded in the fluid bed chamber and
fluidized
The inlet air cause fluidization of the material as well as its drying during the
coating operation
The pellets are pass through the liquid spray of coating solution from the spray
gun positioned parallel to the column
After coating the coated particle falls by gravity at the bottom of wurster column
and recycled to coating zone.
Application:
It is used to coat pharmaceutical dosage form with polymeric material to mark
objectionable taste or odour and also to protect an unstable ingredient and to
improve appearance
Fluidized bed coaters are used for coating of powders, granules, tablets, pellets etc
by column of air
Fluidized bed coating equipment is popular for coating multiparticulate systems
such as beads and non parallel seeds
3) FLUID ENERGY MILL:
A fluid usually air is injected at very high pressure through nozzles at the
bottom of the loop, as a result turbulence produce
Solids are introduced into the steam through hopper
Due to this turbulence occur and impacts and attrition occur between the
particles
A classifier is fitted at the exist so that only finer size particles are collected as
products
The larger size particles are again sent to the stream of air for further size
reduction
Application:
The particle size of the product is smaller when compared to other method of size
reduction
No chance of contamination of the product
This material is suitable where fine powders are required like micro ionization or
griseofulvin
4) DE-HUMIDIFIER:
Warm moist air is sucked in through one side of the machine
An electric fan is used to draws the air inward
The warm air passes through cold pipes through which a coolant circulators,
due to cooling of air, the moisture it contains turns back into liquid water
Then the air passes over a heating element and warms back up to its original
temperature
Warm, dry air blows back into the room through another side of machine
The moisture that was in the air drips down into a collecting tray at the bottom
of the machine
As the collecting tray fills up, a plastic float in the machine rises upward
When the tray is fill, the float trips an electric switch that turns off the fan and
switches on an indicator light which indicates that the machine needs
emptying
Applications:
A dehumidifier is used to reduce the levels of humidity in the air
Large dehumidifier are used in commercial buildings such as indoor ice rinks to
control the humidity level
