Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/238663
NUTRA_32A-32L_Nutra 1/2/14 10:57 AM Page 32E January 2014 32E Tablets & Capsules As described below, this resilient surface coating was field-tested with a nutraceutical product that was destroying a company's punches. over the service life of the tooling when compressing the aggressive formulation. Case study Results of the trial translated into cost savings and productivity increases for the customer. In fact, the tooling lasted nearly twice as long as before, with longer run-time and less downtime. Product yield also increased because the presses needed less frequent set-up. Since this trial, resilient surface-coated tooling is now used at three other locations that manufacture the same nutraceuticals, and our company offers its resilient surface coating to other customers combating abrasion. T&C In January 2008, a leading nutraceutical manufacturer was experiencing serious problems with a particularly abrasive formulation within its line of vitamins. As noted, many nutraceutical products are abrasive, but this particular compound was causing extreme difficulty. The company could compress only about 22 million tablets before the tooling wore out and became unserviceable. This not only required new punches, but added unacceptable downtime to replace and set up 37 stations of tooling. Our challenge was to find a way to extend the service life of the tooling. In response, we set up a compression trial at the customer's facility. Photographs recorded changes throughout the trial, with the goal of seeing just how long the service life of the tooling could be extended by using a coating. The resilient surface coating was tested using the same abrasive formula alongside premium steel tooling and a common competitor's coating. The resilient surface coating soon emerged as a clear winner. The more common coating failed after 19.5 to 21.1 million tablets. The premium steel had to be withdrawn after 21.1 to 22.8 million tablets. Meanwhile, the resilient surface-coated tooling remained serviceable at 44,010,000 tablets—approximately a 93 percent increase Conclusion References 1. I Holland HPG-TC (tungsten carbide) 2. I Holland HPG-MD (powder metallurgy dies) 3. I Holland PharmaCote EC (e-chrome) 4. I Holland PharmaCote RS (resilient surface) Rob Blanchard is research and development and quality systems manager at I Holland, which has its US headquarters at 1684 Target Court, Suite 3, Fort Meyers, FL 33905. Tel. 800 420 2991, fax 232 214 0259. Trevor Higgins, technical expert at I Holland, authored the Eurostandard (EU), the European tooling standard for interchangeable compression tooling. The EU is printed and distributed by I Holland, Nottingham, UK.