Processing powders efficiently

Many pharmaceutical products are manufactured from powders, or are finished with them. Whether gels, creams or suspensions, coatings on tablets or in the manufacture of granulates, powder and powder mixtures of all kinds are used. Importantly for processors, the quality must be right and the results have to be reliably reproducible and subordinated to the often minutely coordinated requirements of the process chain. ystral technology offers a solution.

For manufacturing companies from the pharmaceutical and chemical industry, it is often important that the largest possible bandwidth of batch sizes can be produced on a single plant. Off-the-peg machines and plants are the wrong approach here, according to ystral. Denis Hunn, process and application engineer at ystral, explains: "Our plants are precisely tailored to our customers' requirements. This means the system has to have a variety of configurations and to be straightforward to clean."

Pharmaceutical cleaning processes (CIP, WIP, SIP) present a challenge; ystral says dissolvers or traditional agitators cannot achieve a consistent wetting of powdery fillers without forming agglomerates or air pockets.

The Conti-TDS can be used, for example, in the manufacture of all solvent-based and watery coating suspensions. The powder is added via a suction hose from bags or directly from containers. The powder only comes into contact with the liquid in the dispersion zone. The dispersion takes place under a massive shearing action and vacuum.

The Conti-TDS generates its suction effect directly in the liquid. This means contact between the operator and the materials is completely avoided. The powder inlet is closed after the powder is added. The Conti-TDS can then be used as an inline dispersion machine or for further degassing. It can be installed both on existing vessels and in complete systems.

Less effort, good results

With the Conti-TDS, it is possible to manufacture dispersions and emulsions with particle or drop sizes in the nanometre range. ystral says that because the formation of agglomerates is avoided, a higher product quality is achieved and that wetting and dispersion take place at considerably lower temperatures than with conventional technology. This advantage is often a benefit for downstream process steps.

The suspensions produced with the Conti-TDS have a 90% higher storage stability as a result. This makes the coating process possible hours or even days after manufacture, even without a separate agitator in the storage tank. Energy consumption is said to be almost two-thirds lower than when using conventional technology – with higher quality. Better handling compared to conventional technology is another bonus.

More information about YSTRAL Conti-TDS is available at www.ystral.de.