Any type of pharmaceutical manufacturing is a highly controlled and regulated process. Every step is carefully modulated and a number of different pharmaceutical equipment are used in the process.
Good quality equipment plays a great role in the overall quality of the products and the machine manufacturers make sure that every equipment is tailored in a way that all the tablets, capsules and liquids produced, meets the industry standard. For a better understanding of pharmaceutical manufacturing, here is a list of equipment used in the processing of pharmaceutical products.
High-pressure homogenizers
This equipment is used to homogenize the sample of the product. The equipment consists of a tank to which high pressure is applied for reducing the size of the particles or homogenize the components.
Agitators
Agitators are used for mixing different pharmaceutical liquids, in order to promote chemical reactions between them and also to increase the rate of heating or cooling transfers.
Metal detectors
Just as the name suggests, this equipment is used to detect pieces of metals and fragments of the machinery like screws, nuts or metal scarps that may contaminate the product being manufactured.
Capsule and tablet printers
These are basically printing machines that are used to print information on tablets and capsules like the dosage, name of the drug or the ingredients present in it.
Tablet press
This equipment compresses the active pharmaceutical ingredients in the form of uniformly sized tablets. Tablet presses are used in a number of industries like pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmetic and industrial pellet industries, etc.
Dryers and granulators
These equipment are used to dry the liquid preparations into powdered components and then the granules are collected together, which is later compressed to form cohesive bonds.
Pulverizers and cone mills
This equipment is used by the pharmaceutical, food processing, and cosmetic industries to reduce the particle size of their ingredients. Quadro Comil uses cutting edge technologies to achieve a uniform size reduction.
Heat exchangers
Heat exchangers are devices that are used to reliably and consistently transfer the heat from one medium to another without wasting an excessive amount of energy. The ability of this equipment to offer reliable thermal management helps the companies to improve production.
Boilers
Boilers are equipment used to create steam by applying heat to water and is required for a number of processes including sterilizing, drying and purifying, etc.
Tanks
Tanks and vessels are used to store pharmaceutical liquids and are available in different sizes and made of materials that do not contaminate the liquid it carries.
Blowers
This equipment is used in processes like solvent recovery and thin layer evaporation. The blower is used to condense the low-boiling-point fraction in contaminated solvents to make it usable again.
Centrifuges
Centrifuges are used in the pharmaceutical industry to separate liquids of different densities from a solution and also to separate liquids from solids as well.
Inspection machines
Inspection machines are used for visual inspection of the pharmaceutical products as it moves along the rotating roller. An inspection machine helps check the integrity of the pharmaceutical product.
Tablet deduster
The tablet and capsules after being compressed in the tablet press are transferred to the table deduster to remove the specks of dust that forms during the tablet pressing process. Some tablet dedusters also polish the tablet.
Coaters
This equipment is used to coat tablets and capsules with external coatings like a sugar coating etc.
Mixers
Mixers are also used in the processing of pharmaceutical products. The mixers are used to reduce the size of the particles and also to blend various active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Spray coating machines
These machines are used to spray a coat of liquid on the powdered ingredients in order to confer certain benefits over the uncoated type of product.
Ovens
Ovens are used for drying certain products or providing the necessary amount of heat whenever it is required by the process.
Sifters
Sifters are equipment that serves the same purpose as that of a sieve and are used to sieve the pharmaceutical components like granules and powders.
Chillers
Chillers are equipped with pumps, evaporators, cooling towers and refrigerant valves that are responsible for quickly lowering the temperatures of a component.