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30 April 2016 Tablets & Capsules ter. For example, each of the drums shown in Figure 1 has a 4-to-1 turndown ratio, but because the same base equipment can accommodate them all—covering a capacity range of 40 to 920 liters—the turndown ratio becomes 23-to-1. What interchangeable drums can do for coating sys- tems is similar to what interchangeable turrets did for tablet presses. Few people would buy a new tablet press today that didn't have an easily interchangeable turret. Yet many people continue to buy coating systems that use fixed-size drums. Properly specified, those systems will certainly coat the products you're making today, but they may not be well suited for the products you'll need to coat a year from now or 5 years from now. In that sense, inter- changeable drums future-proof your operation because they enable you to match the drum to new batch sizes or to other coating requirements that may arise later. Here are three scenarios that illustrate the advantages of an interchangeable-drum coating system. Example 1: Accommodating growth in demand Company A buys an interchangeable-drum coating system and a 48-inch drum to support its product launch. At launch and for 1 year thereafter, the company made 120-kilogram batches. But as its managers had predicted, batch sizes had to increase to accommodate demand for the product. Because of that foresight, the company was able to easily switch to a 60-inch drum with a capacity of 300 kilograms per batch. In subsequent years, batch sizes could grow even more, which would require a 65-inch- diameter drum capable of handling up to 675 kilograms. By investing in a coating system that accepts different drum sizes, Company A is spared the expense of buying three different coating systems over the lifecycle of its new product. Example 2: Contract manufacturing Company B is a contract manufacturer and makes a variety of products for several customers. With inter- changeable drums, the company can dedicate drums to specific products and/or customers. It can also speed changeover by cleaning the drums outside the coating suite while another drum is used to coat more product. As a result, the company doesn't need multiple rooms, each with a dedicated tablet coating system. That saves the company the expense of multiple coating systems and frees up those rooms for other uses. Example 3: Maximizing capacity utilization Company C makes a product that must be coated in a specific drum due to its batch size or for validation rea- sons. That product, however, accounts for a small per- centage of the available capacity of the coating system. Let's say the system operates at 20 percent of capacity when it coats this product. At the same site, the company has another coating system that operates at capacity but is only employed for 60 percent of the time that it's available. With an interchangeable-drum coater, the company would need only one system and two drums to match the requirements of each product. It would also need only one room to perform the coating, freeing up floor space for other uses. T&C References 1. Compu-Lab from Thomas Engineering, Hoffman Estates, IL. 2. Flex line of coating systems from Thomas Engineering. 3. Flex 500 from Thomas Engineering. James Hahn is vice president of global sales and marketing at Thomas Engineering, 575 West Central Road, Hoffman E s t a t e s , I L 6 0 1 9 2 . Te l . 8 4 7 3 5 8 5 8 0 0 . We b s i t e : www.thomaseng.com. Figure 1 Interchangeable coating drums and their capacity ranges (liters) [3] 230 to 920 175 to 700 125 to 500 110 to 440 75 to 300 40 to 170 F48XC F65XC F60XC F60XL F60 F48 Interchangeable drums enable you to match the drum to new batch sizes or to other new coating requirements.