| |
|
 |
The American public’s relationship with food and nutrition is ever-changing. More and more people are becoming aware of how diet can affect health, and strive to reach their goals with vitamins, herbals and supplements. The ever-increasing number of people that use diets to control their weight and those who are genuinely health conscious are diligent consumers of food supplements and vitamins.
Major pharmaceutical and food companies have observed this lucrative market and are expanding their production facilities to supply those products.
Existing somewhere between the Food and Pharmaceutical industries, Nutraceutical companies are more regulated than traditional food companies, but not quite as regulated as the Pharmaceutical industry allowing faster availability to the market with plentiful products in many forms; i.e. liquid, candies, tablets and capsules.
MATCON standard equipment, seen quite often in Secondary Pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, is ideally suited to the fast-reacting Nutraceutical market. The designs are inherently clean, using only FDA accepted materials of construction, have the ability to Clean In Place, and can handle many poor flowing products. Short deliveries, robust design and genuine value for the money all add up to the reason that MATCON equipment is chosen more often than any other rigid bin supplier in the market today.
Matcon Solutions For Raw Material Intake
In order to optimize production, some of the major products (vitamin C, beta-carotene, Niacin, etc.) can be packed into MATCON IBCs at the supplier’s manufacturing plant. MATCON IBCs offer a safe DOT approved method of transporting semi-bulk product over land. Secondary shields protect surfaces from road dirt and hazards, allowing the container to be used directly above the process in the raw material dispensing station.
Materials that cannot be delivered in IBCs can be taken from their original packaging and placed into IBCs.
Excipients (calcium carbonate, microcrystalline cellulose, sugar, etc.) can be delivered by road truck and vacuum conveyed into silos. From the silos, the excipients are commonly dense phase transferred into day bins - also part of the dispensing station. Ideally, some of the more commonly used minor ingredients (iodine, selenium, etc.) will be pre-blended in order to automate their dispensing.
MATCON can supply low cost HDPE IBCs, allowing the client to have a considerable fleet. These IBCs can be purchased directly, or can be leased, enabling clients to reduce overall project costs.
Typical Medium Scale Dispensing Operation
Formulation Street
This typical formulation street could be comprised of four-day bins and 10 IBC positions that can fully automate the dispensing area. An automatic crane or forktruck retrieval system can be designed to move the IBCs in and out of the formulation street, as well as placing the process IBC onto the trolley.
The trolley consists of a high accuracy weigh platform, an automatic docking device for the process IBC and a Vari-stroke discharge station. The Vari-stroke station is mounted on a lifting mechanism, enabling it to dock onto the underside of the raw material IBCs or day bins, in line with the batch requirements
MATCON can supply a fully automated dispensing system at a very attractive price. The core piece of the formulation system is the Vari-stroke discharge station that travels back and forth under the raw material IBCs and day bins. Its ability to dose product to less than 2 oz. without additional devices makes it perfect for many products. Because the Vari-stroke discharge station has an automatically variable lift height it can lift the cone valve high into the IBC and help discharge product that is extremely free flowing (granulated sugar) or highly cohesive (titanium dioxide) without manual intervention.
Manual Additions
For minor additions where the quantities do not allow for automated dispensing, manual addition may be necessary. MATCON can provide and integrate manual addition systems. An empty IBC can be set on a gain-in-weight weigh platform and be connected to a fill head or funnel. Pre-weighed minors can then be added. Further sophistication can be added by conducting this process step in a flow booth, or by using high containment technology.
Blending
To minimize cross contamination, an IBC tumble blender is ideal to conduct dry blends. Located in its own blending area or behind a safety enclosure, the IBC is loaded onto the blender by fork truck. The product is then homogenized by the tumbling action of the IBC in the blender. Asymmetric blending ensures that the product is fully blended.
In-bin blending is the most popular way of blending powders in the Pharma industry. Blending within a single dedicated discrete vessel is the only way to ensure there is no cross contamination of the product between two batches. Furthermore, the cone valve in the bottom of the IBC provides gentle shear during blending, allowing shorter blending times than some conventional IBC blending systems.
High Shear Blending
MATCON can also provide a high shear element to the tumbling action by introducing a high shear blade through the lid. This blade is separately driven from a drive motor mounted to the top frame of the blender. Various blade designs, speed and duration contribute to the amount of shear that is available to the unit.
Tableting
In low ceiling applications it is normal to feed the blended powder through the floor. This design enables the floor levels to be dedicated to various processes. The floor above the tablet presses is dedicated to IBC handling, with all the discharge stations being mounted directly to the floor. The floor below is dedicated to process equipment such as tablet presses that may exist in GMP areas. These areas can now be made quite small, as they only need to contain the tablet press itself – thus allowing major savings in air-handling and facility design.
The unique MATCON cone valve system has been designed to discharge dry solids in a mass flow fashion. The docking action of the IBC onto the discharge station ensures that there is no dust during the discharge of the product. Without dust, there may be no need to construct separate rooms for each discharge station. The room where they are located need not be a GMP area and the frames of the station can be made of painted carbon steel. All of this helps keep the overall facility costs to a minimum.
Having a controlled feed from the IBC optimizes the operation of the tablet press. This can be achieved by mounting a simple level probe in the down chute leading from the discharge station outlet to the tablet press inlet. Using the cone valve system favors mass flow discharge of the blend, which is proven to minimize segregation.
Conclusion
Matcon has demonstrated after many applications in the Nutraceutical manufacturing industry that their equipment and technology has distinct advantages in many key material handling areas. The cone valve compliments the extensive use of IBC technology to enable many processes to work automatically and with flawless results. Material is contained, reducing dust and loss of product. When in a discrete container, contamination is drastically reduced, cross contamination is eliminated and the dangerous migration of allergens is removed. Storing product becomes an easy mechanical handling issue, and rigid IBCs can be nitrogen blanketed to protect the stored product longer. Through labeling, bar coding or R.F. tagging, inventory can be better controlled.
Matcon IBCs are robust, being manufactured completely from Stainless Steel or from High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). The contact surfaces are always smooth to help with easy cleaning. The simple cone valve has no mechanical parts, nylon feet prevent damage to finished floors, and stacking features help with the efficient storage of the material.
For much more information on Matcon and our extensive range of equipment suited to the Nutraceutical Industry, please call us at 1 866 Y MATCON, or visit:
Web site: http://www.matconibc.com/
© Copyright 1998 - 2009 Powder and
Bulk Dot Com
Top of Page
|
|
| |
| Send news and case
histories to:
news@powderandbulk.com |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
I Live Newsfeed
I |
|
Increase traffic and add
content to your website
with our exclusive
newsfeed generator.
Our live newsfeed
allows you to
include news
headlines from our
News Center, right
on your homepage.
Headlines update in
real-time, automatically.
Click here to create
your own newsfeed! |
|
| |
|
 |
