Posted by sachin on | Comments Off on Equipment Spotlight #2: WP200
Alexanderwerk is a leader in designing and engineering machinery for the pharmaceutical industry. Our research and testing facilities allow clients to evaluate our advanced machinery in a controlled testing environment. Our granulation testing equipment includes our WP200 Pharma Roller Compactor. The high-volume pharmaceutical roller compaction unit is available to test in our controlled environment or to rent for testing in the client’s facility.
This blog post covers the WP200 Pharma Roller Compactor, including its advantages, characteristics, features, and functions.
The WP200 by Alexanderwerk
The WP200 Pharma Roller Compactor by Alexanderwerk is one of the larger production model roller compactors in our product line. It is suitable for processing high volumes of material continuously with high efficiency while complying with the pharmaceutical industry’s highest standards and requirements.
The WP200 is also capable of processing small batches due to its ease of use during product changeover and cleaning in between batches. Other features of the WP200 include:
Throughput range: 10 to 500 kg/h Lactose
Roller diameter: 200mm
Roller width: 75mm
Roller gap: 5mm
Maximum press force: 20 kN/cm
Maximum roller speed: 38 RPM
Compaction is ideal for processing herbal extracts, active and inactive ingredients, and immediate or controlled release drugs. The pharmaceutical industry and CDMOs rely on roller compactors to manufacture pills, tablets, instant powders, flavors, capsules, nutraceuticals, and various life science products.
Functions & Features of the WP200
The WP200 Pharma Roller Compactor offers a range of functions and features. Alexanderwerk’s Combi-Vent Feeder® uses our patented screw feeding technology to deliver a more consistent material feeding to the roller by allowing air from compaction to escape during the compaction process. Our Diagonal-Design® two-stage granulation allows for increased screen capacity, doubling the throughput of the roller compactor and improving overall granulation quality.
Combi Vent Feeder
The WP200 provides stable functionality and allows operators complete control during continuous processing tasks. The roller compactor’s automatic feed control helps it adjust to physical changes in the material to provide consistent roller gap and compaction pressure. Operators have access to precision adjustment of the roller RPMs, compaction pressure, flake density, and throughput using the WP200’s modern interface.
The WP200 Pharma Roller Compactor requires no special tools for complete disassembly of the unit and facilitates easy cleaning and changeover tasks with a cantilever roll design. The controls on the WP200 are separate from the machine frame, and the roller compactor includes an automatic wash-in-place system and isolator in compliance with level 5 OEB containment.
Alexanderwerk’s WP200 Pharma Roller Compactor
The WP200 Pharma Roller Compactor from Alexanderwerk delivers processing of small batches with no-hassle changeovers or continuous runs of large volumes of materials, making it ideal for CDMOs and pharmaceutical companies. Alexanderwerk has partnered with various leaders in the pharmaceutical, food, life science, nuclear technology, and chemical processing industries to develop dry granulation and compaction solutions. Our experts are adept in taking products from development and design to a smooth installation with continuous support to the end-user.
Contact us to learn more about our granulation and compaction solutions for the pharmaceutical industry.
Posted by Ryan Gurian on | Comments Off on What is Compaction?
In compaction processes, the primary goal is to increase the bulk density of powders and solids. In particular, small, fine particles are connected by compression to larger particles. It may also be the goal that high air fractions should be removed from the bulk materials, so that lower volumes can be generated at the end. Pure compaction processes are used primarily in the chemical industry.
Figure 1: The main regions of the compaction zone in roller compaction
Depending on the nature of the starting material of the compaction is still followed by a crushing or milling process. Thereby, the compacted, but partly coarse agglomerates (flakes, ribbons, needles) are to be divided into smaller particles with a certain particle size distribution (PSD).Compacting with roller presses is a highly efficient way of compacting bulk materials. The starting material is compacted in the roller compaction via two counter-rotating rollers. A special case of compacting is briquetting. Here, the roller surfaces are provided with pockets, so that the briquettes are formed during pressing.
Depending on the plastic deformability of the starting material, endless flakes, but also fine needle agglomerates, are produced by pressing. Needle agglomerates are e.g. generated during the compaction of silicates.
The slugs are comminuted in the following crushing process granules desired shape. This results in bulk materials with higher densities (lower volume), better flow and dosing properties and certain particle size distributions. Alexanderwerk roller compactors are used in compacting (and granulation) processes in the following applications:
Compaction & Granulation of pharmaceutical materials
Compaction & Granulation of battery batterie mass
Compaction & Granulation of catalysts
Compaction & Granulation of color pigments
Compaction & Granulation of enzymes
Compaction & Granulation of natural / biological bulk materials
Compaction & Granulation of food
Compaction & Granulation of coffee powder
Compaction & Granulation of minerals
Compaction & Granulation of ores
Compaction & Granulation of lignite
Compaction & Granulation of various salts
Compaction & Granulation of fertilizers
Compaction & Granulation of brown coal
Compaction & Granulation of metal and metal oxide powders
Compaction & Granulation of used nuclear fuel elements (U3O8)
Compaction & Granulation for the enrichment of nuclear fuel elements (UF2)
Posted by Admin Alexanderwerk on | Comments Off on Issues with poor flowing CBD Isolate? We can solve that!
Typical CBD isolate material (powder) has poor flow characteristics and is usually light and fluffy. This unfortunate property makes it difficult to handle and especially challenging when feeding the material to downstream blending operation or a tablet press. Luckily, this challenge is easy to solve, by converting the small fine powder into a larger flowing granule – all without altering the chemical properties of the isolate. Welcome to dry granulation technology.
Dry granulation by roller compaction is a well-established process in pharmaceutical, chemical and life science industry. In pharmaceutical applications, the most common target is to increase the flowability of a powder or powder blend to enable the fast and homogeneous filling of a tablet press. The challenge is to produce tablets of constant weight and sufficient strength, while maintaining an even distribution of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), or in this case, the CBD Isolate powder. This can be achieved by roller compaction for a wide range of products and without the need of additional ingredients such as binders, moisture or lubricants. Furthermore, dry granulation by roller compaction is used to eliminate dust, increase the bulk density, reduce the storage volume, improve handling and manipulate the dissolution properties.
Dry granulation by roller compaction consists of two separate steps. The first step is an agglomeration step, starting From Raw Material Powder to a Flake. The second step is a size reduction step, From Flake to Granulate. Here the flake is milled and reduced to a good flowing granulate by using a Flake Crusher, Pre- and Fine-Granulator. A Detailed view on a Roller Compactor can be seen in Figure 1 and the flow diagram can be seen in Figure 2. You can find a helpful decision making guideline and granulation process video here: https://alexanderwerkinc.com/products/roller-compaction-pharmaceutical/
Figure 1:Detailed view on a Roller Compactor Figure 2: Flow Diagram of a Roller Compactor
Are you curious about what dramatically improving flowability may look like? Check out our YouTube video that shows you the before and after granulation effect of roller compaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk0JPwnzylg&t=2s
Posted by sachin on | Comments Off on Manufacturer’s Technology Workshop / ISPE Event
MANUFACTURER’S TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOP – Alexanderwerk is partnering with the ISPE-Delaware Valley Chapter’s Oral Solid Dosage (more…)
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use our data privacy. AcceptMore information
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
Skip to content
var wto = wto || [];
wto.push(['setWTID', 'wt-5cd54202-3ceb-4609-ab8d-996807d99edd']);
wto.push(['webTraxs']);
(function() {
var wt = document.createElement('script');
wt.src = document.location.protocol + '//www.webtraxs.com/wt.php';
wt.type = 'text/javascript';
wt.async = true;
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(wt, s);
})();
Figure 1: The main regions of the compaction zone in roller compaction
