Different Types of Machinery for Uniform Coating in Pharmaceutical Industries

The pharmaceutical industry has the need for important equipment. Tablets & bottled fluids are two of the most popular products. This industry has a major requirement for the coating machinery. The main purpose of coating is to mask the odour, taste and colour of the drug. Besides which, it is also beneficial in providing physical and chemically protection to the drug. The coating also serves the purpose of determining the effectiveness of the dosage.

There are many types of tablet coating like the enteric-coated tablet, film-coated tablet, compression coating, and the sugar coated tablet. Sugar-coated tablet is one of the most popular ones and many of us may be familiar with it. It is commonly used for kids to absorb bitterness of the medicine, it is also useful for medicinal tablets that are very bitter. It is very efficient in absorbing the bad odour and bitter taste. This type of coating is created by evaporating syrup effectively creating a thick sugar layer and tends to be shiny and bright in colour.

Principle of the Tablet Coating Machine

A tablet coating machine is very effective when it comes to coating the external surface of a tablet using a special thin film of the coating material. The basic principle of coating material is applied to a moving bed of tablets. It also makes use of hot air to remove solvents. The tablets are placed in a closed drum and rotated in an orbital manner by influence from a streamlined plate. The coating medium automatically sprays on tablets during this orbital motion in a method that avoids excess coating.

Additionally angled baffles are fitted in the drums to aid in the process of mixing tablets. The benefit of using the baffles is that it lifts and turns tablets to ensure all tablets are fully exposed to the sprayed coating. It consists of a perforated bed; which is used to introduce hot air using inlet fans. The temperature and volume of the hot air is regulated and is meant to effectively dry the coating medium. Tablet coating machine includes coating pans, spraying guns as well as exhaust and heating pipes.

Theory of the Fluid Bed Processor

A Fluid bed Processor helps with the process of coating, granulation, drug layering and drying of particulate material. The fluid bed coater is implemented in the pharmaceutical industry using a bottom-spray (Wurster) process that ensures uniform coating. It consists of a fluidized bed of solid particles that allows hot air to pass at high pressure via the air distribution plate of the container. The particles are placed in a fluidized state by lifting them from the bottom and suspending them in an air stream. Spray nozzles are used to spray the coating solution which is then dried with hot air. There are several types of sprays in a fluidized bed processor; top spray, bottom spray, tangential spray.

Efficiency of Fluid Bed Processor

Fluid bed processor is a very efficient technology for the top spray method. The fact that the same equipment can be used for top spray granulation, bottom spray coating & drying is very beneficial. This method ensures uniform coating. This machine uses the latest technology to ensure the process is completed without any flaws to produce high-quality products for the pharmaceutical industry.