Use of swirling airflow to enhance coating performance of bottom spray fluid bed coaters

A Feasibility Study on Pellet Coating Using a High-Speed Quasi-continuous Coater

“…The Supercell™ coater leverages on airflow patterns and process parameters to ensure appropriate balance of the system's thermodynamics. A 3 4 full factorial design was carried out to study the effects of four factors on the pellet coating process. Specifically, these factors included the spray rate of the coating dispersion, batch size of the pellet load, plenum pressure contributed by the fluidizing air and size fraction of pellets.…”

“…In a previous study (4), the use of a swirling airflow in a bottom-spray fluid bed coater was shown to be able to impart sufficient shear forces to the pellet load to break any transiently formed liquid bridges which precedes agglomeration. It was thus hypothesized that the Supercell™ coater, in view of its unique swirling airflow pattern, may be able to reduce the problem of pellet agglomeration via a similar mechanism.…”

“…However, the Wurster coater has been associated with problems of pellet agglomeration during the coating process. This was partly attributed to the dense flow of pellets within the central partition column, where the close proximity of pellets with respect to one another often results in extensive agglomeration (3,4). Unpredictable airflow patterns in the partition gap, defined as the gap between the base of the central partition column and the air distribution plate, further exacerbated the problem of agglomeration (5).…”

Development of Controlled Release Captopril Granules Coated with Ethylcellulose and Methylcellulose by Fluid Bed Dryer

“…Fluid bed coating is a popular method of coating multiparticles due to its high throughput and excellent coating (Heng, Chan, and Tang 2006). Our group has described excellent results regarding extended captopril stability by the use of fluid bed coating in association with ethylcellulose and methylcellulose polymers (Stulzer and Silva 2006).Therefore, in the present report we describe a controlled release system for captopril granules coated with ethylcellulose and ethyl/methylcellulose using fluid bed dryer.…”

Classification of Annular Bed Flow Patterns and Investigation on Their Influence on the Bottom Spray Fluid Bed Coating Process

“…A visiometric process analyzer has been developed for quantifying particle recirculation within the partition column (13). High speed photography revealed that particle recirculation within the partition column can be reduced by adding additional swirl air accelerator and air accelerator insert (AAI) to the Wurster coater (5). Particle mass flow rate affects coat uniformity by influencing the mean frequency of particles passing through the spray zone.…”