Tableting Technology Improves Efficiency

The new TPR 500 tablet press from Bosch Packaging Technology features die table, torque drive and tablet discharge chute, as well as an intuitive human machine interface. Reduced maintenance and overall ease of use make the TPR 500 suitable for customers with flexible requirements. It comes with a new 56-station die table and can produce more than 400,000 tablets per hour, the company says.The modular powder feeding system allows for more flexibility with a two-paddle design that can be upgraded to three paddles, depending on product properties and powder characteristics. Production is completely separated from the mechanical area, preventing powder contamination in the mechanical zone.

The latest Capmatic Street Fighter 50-100 or 200 are built to operate at speeds from 20 to 250 BPM (on 100 counts). In addition to maintaining high levels of inspection and accuracy, these compact high-speed, automatic In-line Electronic Counters are built with a complete Euro-Guard frame and the latest Vision System. They are applicable for any tablets/capsules/soft-gels and caplets. Its vacuum cleaning system eliminates dust particles, providing more production and less cleaning stoppage.

In-Sight vision systems from Cognex offer a higher level of speed, quality and efficiency in the inspection of printed tablets. Incorporating both camera and image processing in a single enclosure, In-Sight systems provide excellent single-tablet rejection capabilities while other machines can only reject whole batches of tablets, the company says. In-Sight vision systems operate faster than modular cameras and are easier to program because their PatMax pattern matching algorithm easily finds the printed image on the tablet with a single command.

B&W Tek's NanoRam handheld Raman spectrometer is designed for rapid incoming raw material identification in pharma cGMP facilities as well as counterfeit drug detection. The unit is engineered from conception to specifically address the needs of pharmaceutical manufacturing. As a result, the NanoRam has been designed to provide the most robust identification and investigation algorithms while still maintaining ease of use by end-users, developers and administrators — all while complying with 21 CFR Part 11 regulations.

Natoli Engineering offers new tablet presses — the NP-RD20, an R&D style tablet press and the NP-155 rotary tablet press. The NP-RD20 manufactures single tablets or test tablet parameters during research and development. The RD20 is an automated, single station mobile lab press that is cGMP and CE compliant. It features programmable precompression parameters and dwell time, as well as Data Acquisition capabilities to collect and track test results. The NP-155 is a low cost solution for tablet manufacturers in need of a medium-output rotary press. It features a hardened steel die table, auto-lubricated turret, touch screen HMI, optional forced feeders and direct drive design. It can produce up to 4,680 tablets per minute

According to Eriez, pairing its metal detectors with magnetic separators provides excellent protection from metal contamination in light industry applications. Using the “double team” approach ensures that contaminants such as fine ferrous and nonferrous metal particles do not enter the processing stream and compromise product purity. Working in conjunction, the magnet removes the ferrous contamination while the metal detector focuses on any ferrous missed by the magnet as well as nonferrous metals.

Fette Compacting America’s FE75 Tablet Press can be equipped with up to 115 punch stations to produce more than 1.6 million tablets per hour. Ideal for production of large batches, the unit’s four compression rollers feature a special control system for direct compression, enabling the machine to operate with two intermediate pressures. Features include a conical filling unit, manually adjustable filling table, trouble-free tablet discharge through the column, revamped operating terminal and connection of process equipment through a standard plug-and-play interface. With a footprint of only two square meters, the FE75 is also the only double-sided rotary press of its size that enables users to press single- and double-layer tablets as well as powder, the company says.

Vertical tablet conveyors/dedusters have become an economical way to efficiently convey and de-dust tablets utilizing a small footprint. The vertical vibratory conveyor uses gentle vibration to convey the product upward in a spiral along a smooth, perforated surface. KRAEMER's KD6015 is now available with Ceia metal detectors to meet conveying speeds up to 3.5 million tablets per hour and conveying heights up to 500 mm. Two conveying heights are available. The C820 controller with integrated acceleration sensor allows for a constant flow of tablets under varying tablet loads for easy operation.  

The Mettler-Toledo Safeline Tablex-PRO metal detection system combines the company’s metal contaminant detection technology with new software to allow pharma manufacturers to strengthen compliance while improving product safety/productivity. Tablex-PRO is equipped with a Condition Monitoring feature that contributes to the prevention of unscheduled downtime and increases process efficiency. It continually assesses system performance and provides advanced warning of problems so that manufacturers can resolve issues when off-line. Important alerts are displayed on a high-visibility touch screen.