Tablet and Capsule Drum Filling System: How to Reliably Transfer Semi-solid Products

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CO.RA. S.r.L.

Challenging Project Specifications

The challenge taken up in this case specifically concerns the transfer of semi finished products such as tablets, capsules and granules, in packing units that can be identified and transported over considerable geographical distances. The solution achieved with the Tablet and Capsule Drum Filling System is reason of pride for the complexity of the project and the high level of innovation that this system contains.

Among the project specifications that the customer asks CO.RA. to take into consideration, we find accurate, repeatable and automated dosing and a flexible and easy to clean system. The system must provide a safe and ergonomic work environment for the operator. In addition, the handling of the product must not generate waste, given the high unit value inherent the product.

The product thus dosed shall be available for interim storage and it must be possible to manage tens or even hundreds of different recipes of product which differ among each other, and which are differentiated by the identification of the product, the weight of the tablet or the intermediate form of the package.

For each of these conditions there correspond machine parameters that are stored under the name of control system “procedures” and that can be invoked via the intuitive touch-screen operation. The decision to implement the new solution was a critical step towards the optimization of management of production processes in the pharmaceutical field.

Automatic Manipulator

The system’s flexibility is evident from the beginning of the manipulation cycle, with the use of the automatic manipulator with lifting, rotating and capsizing column: Sterilift. The careful design and realization of the Sterilift allows for the safe operation in a pharmaceutical ambient according to the highest GMP norms and with higher reliability which is typical of hydraulic solutions. Even in the event of an alarm or sudden stop, the system allows you to start from the exact position of stall thanks to the encoders and to the laser distance meters with millimetric precision.

The gripp of the lifting column can fit containers such as stainless steel or plastic drums or a container dedicated to tablets. Thanks to the conical trunk adapters available for the gripping device, the transfer of the product to the dosing device becomes completely “dust-free”.

Special Tablet Valve

At the top of the adapter hopper there is a Tablet Valve with an open and close actuator. The Tablet Valve is the first element with which the product comes into contact during its descent. The platinum cured silicone coated vane of pharmaceutical grade avoids the product from having to endure conditions of stress so that it can gently slide down. The product, whether in the form of a tablet or capsule can then be stopped in case of interruption of the operations thus avoiding breaking or damage, even of lacquered tablets which are particularly sensitive to shock and chipping when manipulated.

Special Dosing Valve

The product thus conveyed reaches the metering valve, which consists of a rotary valve with special silicone lobes, the innovative Rotary Valve Tablet. Thanks to the attention to the design, CO.RA. draftsmen have managed to combine the precision of a multiple pocket dosing valve with the typical delicacy of tablet valves with silicone-coated vanes. The valve consists of a stainless steel shaft and three silicone discs that intersect the shaft and thus form six lobes. The “FDA approved” silicone rubber is designed expressly to provide adequate strength to contain the product, but flexible enough to avoid damaging it. The result is the ability to achieve accurate, repeatable and fully appropriate dosing of the product to be elaborated. The drive control using precision encoders to adjust the position of the Rotary Valve Tablet with a tolerance equal to a fraction of a degree allows for a quick and effective dosage. This way it is possible to dose at high speeds when weighing accuracy is not important or when it is still far from the end of dosing and to then reach weight precision with a slow discharge. During tests under conditions that mimic the operation with products actually used in the pharmaceutical industry, CO.RA. technicians have been able to obtain consistently accurate dosing, more than the demands of the test protocols, while operating under conditions of very low dosage times typical of stressful productive situations.

Special Diverter Valve

At this point the product is required to be deflected in its descent into flexible bags that belong to a different transport unit (a box, for example). In this circumstance, the solution is to use a special diverter valve that allows the transfer of the product into an output channel for this purpose.

The product is diverted to the appropriate output and falls in the bag until it reaches the predetermined weight. The metering valve stops and the diverting device that is downstream is ready to start feeding another bag. The system provides the ability to connect an external tube to one of the discharge vents to recover the excess tablets that could be among the batch being transferred. So even in unforeseen abnormal conditions, the system allows the recuperation and restoration of the condition prior to the trouble condition.

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