Feeder Unit, a Feeder Module Comprising a plurality of Feeder Units, and Method for Discharging a Constant Mass Flow of One or More Powders Into a Receiving Container

Abstract

A feeder unit comprises a storage hopper, a weighing cell, a conveyer, and a discharge end. The storage hopper is to be connected to a refilling system and the discharge end to a receiving container. A working space is defined by the arithmetic product of the dead weight of the feeder unit and the refilling interval, such that the working space is below 0.2 kgh. Furthermore a method for discharging a constant mass flow of one or more powders into a receiving container is defined.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a feeder unit comprising a storage hopper, a weighing cell, a conveyer, and a discharge end, the storage hopper being adapted to be connected to a refilling system, and the discharge end to a receiving container, a working space being defined by the arithmetic product of dead weight of the feeder unit and the refilling interval. The invention furthermore relates to a feeder module comprising a plurality of feeder units, and a method for discharging a constant mass flow of one or more powders into a receiving container.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Within the pharmaceutical industry there is an increasing interest in providing products of a higher quality, and a number of guidelines and regulations have been formulated during recent years to establish proper quality measurement, analysis and control.[0003]In addition to improving the processing efficiency and quality there is a general interest in providing processes tha...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a feeder unit that improves accuracy while still being flexible and adaptable to various operational conditions. This reduces the risk of exposing the operator to harmful materials.

Problems solved by technology

However, WO03 / 020499 does not take fully into account the interest in providing better process control.

However, due the increasingly widespread application of regulated criteria for monitoring and controlling in particular pharmaceutical manufacturing processes, and to the general increase in the demands to quality by design, the level of quality of monitoring and control attainable by a batch process is often not sufficient, i.a. due to the fact that settings are fixed.

Furthermore, a relatively large buffer volume is required, entailing undesired back-mixing of the material stream.

This is known as the scale-up problem.

Due to a variety of factors, this is not feasible in practice.

First, it is under any circumstances almost impossible to adjust the output from the mixing and drying units to provide a just-in-time supply of material to the tabletting machine.

This may lead to accumulation of material along the process line awaiting adjustment of certain process parameters.

In turn, this inevitably necessitates the use of intermediate buffer vessels in order to store material upstream of the tablet press.

Many existing loss-in-weight feeders thus function well but are often relatively voluminous and heavy, and require certain conditions with respect to for instance the installation conditions in the production area.

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