Custom Engineering of a Thru Floor Discharge Station for the Pharmaceutical Industry

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The system shown here was originally custom engineered for a pharmaceutical customer to process capsules and tablets. However it has been applied to food products such as cereal, oil additives, even explosives. Designed as a thru floor discharge station it is used to fill tablet presses with powder products as well as gravity feed to a tablet press in a clean room. The thru floor design eliminates contamination from outside the tablet room.

Once the customer's requirements were determined, CAD drawings were created to show the interface with the discharge stand and the tablet press. A mezzanine was built to allow the mass flow bins to discharge product from the tablet press room above. A "Y spout" was used to direct the flow to two inlets on the tablet press. The discharge station was fitted with calibrated load cells, and designed to accept multi-size IBC's from different manufacturers. The system included features such as a vibrator, inflatable seals, auto opener, bin in place sensor, valve positioned indicator, and a flow sensor. The overall height was kept to a minimum to allow the IBC's to be loaded by pallet jack. In addition, an option for IBC's with casters was also offered.

All product contact areas were fabricated from T-316L stainless steel, and polished to 320 Mirror (8-10 Ra) finish, all welds were ground smooth and flush to 180 Grit (18-23 Ra) finish. The support structure and exterior was composed of T 304 stainless steel and polished to an 180 grit (18-23 Ra). These welds were also ground smooth and flush.

The system included a touch screen HMI, which provided the operator with full control of the unit from the tablet press room. An additional HMI was installed at the station for maintenance purposes. The PLC was equipped with Ethernet to provide information to the master control room. Flow testing of the product was completed at the G2 facility, we also provided the customer with all material documentation and certifications. For more information on this system, see the table below or contact us directly.

Highlights of this Custom Engineered & Fabricated Equipment

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