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Turnersville, NJ -- An international pharmaceutical manufacturer had an Oral Solid Dosage (OSD) processing facility with a problem: They were manually loading and unloading tablets to and from dryer trays, as well as handling the unwieldy trays themselves in and out of an oven dryer.
The existing operation was a labor-intensive, manual operation that required precision handling of the tablets. Each tray had to be loaded with the correct weight of tablets, placed in a dryer rack slot and subsequently loaded into an oven dryer. The reverse manual unloading operation also occurred
In search of a solution, they approached CE&IC (a New Jersey based professional services firm) with their problem. CE&IC, recognizing that there would not be an “off-the-shelf” solution, contacted IEDCO (Industrial Equipment & Design Company) for help. Having worked together in the past, CE&IC knew of IEDCO’s innovative systems oriented approach to material handling challenges.
The Solution
The initial concept was a “robotic arm” that would “read” indexed trays and remove the appropriate empty trays from the rack onto a table. Although this concept had some desirable characteristics, such as a small footprint and no operator intervention, it still contained several challenges: maintenance, cleanability and cost.
The design process developed into maneuvering the dryer rack itself with retractable arms at a fixed elevation. The dryer rack containing individual trays was mounted on a moveable carriage. The carriage would be maneuvered vertically (up and down) on a lifting mechanism. The retractable arms would pull or push individual trays in or out of their slots, across a series of rollers.
A vibratory feeder would evenly distribute the tablets onto the trays before they pushed back into position. After replacing the filled tray into the rack, the lift mechanism would elevate the rack to the next indexed tray position, and the previous step was repeated.
During the unloading of the dried tablets, the same steps as above, in reverse, would occur. A tray would be indexed so that it lined up with the retracting arms. The arms would then remove the filled tray across the rollers. Clamps would grab and secure the trays, as the series of rollers, with the trays on top, is slowly lowered into an unloading chamber, which is directly connected to a discharge IBC/tote.
After the tablets have been totally discharged from the tray, the retracting arms would elevate the empty trays back to the initial elevation and push them back into the tray rack. This step is repeated for each filled tray. Finally, the empty tray rack with all the empty trays is lowered back to floor level by the carriage hoist
Advantages
The advantages of this approach is that the fixed mechanical arms would not require nearly as much functionality, small parts or inelegance as the robotic arm approach and results in a much simpler design.
No enclosed mechanical devices would be in contact with the product path. Any parts required for cleaning, such as the rollers, would be easily accessible and removable. In addition the number and complexity of mechanical items is greatly reduced.
Finally, commercially available components such as the hoist mechanism and vibratory feeder are integral to the design, thereby helping to reduce costs and making available readily obtainable spare parts
Equipment used
Column Lift to receive and lift tray racks. The Column Lift is stationarily floor mounted with no top support and is completely electrically powered. The entirely electric design makes the machine more reliable, trouble-free and smoother operating than either hydraulic or pneumatically powered units. There is no leakage, no motion creep and far less maintenance.
Support Structure with dual access platform allows for easy operator access to the Tablet Surge Hopper and Tray Filling Areas. An integral IBC location system permits exact placement of both IBC’s to be emptied from above and those to be filled below.
Tablet Surge Hopper to which tablets are fed from an IBC to be unloaded. These tablets are distributed evenly to both sides of the tablet delivery system for even tray filling. The surge hopper also keeps a head load of product above the tray feeders while switching out emptied IBC’s so as not to interrupt the tray filling sequence.
Discharge Hopper is the area in which trays enter and are filled or emptied by means of pneumatically driven tray handlers. All controls and wiring are mounted externally and obscured by removable dust covers. All pneumatic tubing and wiring inside the hopper has been routed through stainless steel conduit so as to minimize exposed utilities. During tray emptying, the discharge hopper directs the tablets into an empty IBC Below.
Conclusion
IEDCO, partnered with CE&IC, was able to provide the pharmaceutical manufacturer with a fully integrated system that fulfilled all their goals and needs. What was once an unwieldy, labor-intensive manual operation is now simple in execution, easy to clean, accurate and safe.
For more information visit:
http://www.iedco.com/
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