When making pharmaceutical products, it is common knowledge that the act of just mixing ingredients together to form your tablet isn’t enough. In many cases, manufacturers need to also throw in a few additives to really achieve specific effects that they’re looking for in their tablets.
You see that process of handling? This is where tablet coating comes in. And for it to work, it’s important to have the right tablet coating machines. But, how do these machines work? Let’s examine their working principles.
Working Principles of Tablet Coating Machines
We’ve pointed out the fact that these coating machines have a simple task when it comes to the general drug making process – ensuring that you won’t have any issues with applying coatings to the tablets.
And for them to do this, they need to work with the following principles:
You First Load The Tablets
To begin with, you can’t just coat from the start. You instead need to load the tablets into the machine and make sure that they’re ready for the process. Remember that the pan spins either horizontally or at an angle, all based on its design.
Then, Prepare Your Coating Solution
Next, you prepare your coating material. In most cases, this is a solution or a suspension that comes with pigments, polymers, and other potential additives. Also, you’ll find that it’s probably best if you prepare the coating solution separately and feed it into a spraying system on its own.
Begin The Spraying Action
For the next step, you need the use of a spray gun or nozzle to let the coating solution run all over the tablets while they remain in their spinning motion. With this spraying system, you won’t have to worry about applying the coating material uniformly – it takes care of this process, ensuring that the tablet surfaces are properly covered.
Let The Tablets Dry
Once the coating material has been applied, you leave them to keep rotating in the pan. At this point, a drying process will take place, with heat being applied to ensure that the process is optimized as much as possible.
Drying can be done either through infrared heating or the circulation of warm air – whichever process helps to remove any excess moisture from the coating material. At the end, you should be left with a uniform, solid layer of coat on the tablet’s surface.
You Could Cure If You Want
An optional step comes in the form of curing. Some coating materials need this, essentially allowing them to rest for a bit so that the coating can really solidify and form the characteristics you need.
Let It Cool Off & You’re Ready
If you’ll implement curing, then let it complete. From there, leave the tablets to cool down a bit, then discharge them from the coating pan. You can polish the tablets if you want, but at this point, you’re pretty much ready to package them and send them out.
Conclusion
Tablet coating is a critical part of the entire manufacturing process. With coating, you improve the tablet’s original form beyond just the active ingredients and optimize specific characteristics.
If you’re looking to get your hands on a tablet coating machine, feel free to reach out to us at Sainty Tec.
