Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1199406
16 January 2020 Tablets & Capsules Solutions to try next If sticking is still an issue after troubleshooting the first-tier solutions, try the following. These solutions require a larger investment in operations but may help solve a persistent sticking issue. Add a cleaning station. You can minimize buildup of a sticky formulation by upgrading your capsule filler with a cleaning station. The cleaning station will be located directly after the machine's ejection station and uses pressurized air to intermittently blow residual pow- der from the segment bores into a vacuum hood located above the segments. Upgrade the cleaning station. If your filling machine already has a cleaning station but you are still experienc- ing powder buildup, you may need to upgrade the clean- ing station to include brushes on the cleaning pins. The brushes will help scrub material out of the segment bores in conjunction with the blasts of compressed air, resulting in a more thorough cleaning. disk bores before the slug is transferred. If they are mis- aligned, material can shave off the side of the slug during transfer, and the loose powder will find its way into the segment bores. You can prevent this by using transfer alignment pins to qualify proper alignment. Establish the proper gap at dosing. The optimal gap between the bottom of the dosing disk and the top of the tamping ring can be dependent on the formulation. For non-sticky formulations, a gap at or near .005 inch will prevent excessive powder from escaping and building up on machine components. However, with some formula- tions, that same gap can cause the dosing bowl to seize because of sticking. In such cases, increasing the gap sig- nificantly—as large as .015 inch—may help. If a larger gap is necessary to successfully run the formulation, be sure excess powder is removed via the machine's tamp- ing ring support base vacuum ports. If the machine isn't equipped with this feature, be sure to periodically clean out excess powder. Photo 2: Friction from the tamping pins entering and exiting the dosing disk can generate heat and cause sticking problems. Photo 3: Using plastic parts such as the PET-TX tamping ring shown here can help reduce sticking. Sign up now by emailing kmyers@cscpub.com your name, company, and email address. To see a sample, please visit our website.