Case Study: Conveying Pharmaceutical Powders From Rigid IBCs To Tabletting And Process Machines

In the interests of reducing manual handling and associated costs, pharmaceutical manufacturers have increasingly adopted large containers such as rigid IBCs for the delivery of mixed materials to tabletting lines. These enable obsolete methods such as the use of small containers and hand scoops to be eliminated.

Spiroflow has now developed dedicated equipment to enable material to be conveyed automatically from a rigid IBC to pharmaceutical tabletting lines or other process machinery.

Its advantages are:

• Completely sealed, hygienic design system.
• Accurate and consistent flow of material with no pulsation.
• Easy disassembly for cleaning.

A rigid bin is placed in position over the inlet hopper for the Spiroflow conveyor and the two units are connected by a sealed chute. The inlet hopper is crevice-free welded and polished - this high quality finish ensures system hygiene suitable for wet or dry cleaning.

The discharge valve of the bin is opened and material falls into the hopper and into the bottom of the UHMWPE delivery tube in which the stainless steel flexible spiral rotates. Above the tube is fitted a proximity type low level sensor switch which inhibits rotation of the spiral when the contents level of the hopper has fallen below the critical level. This is to prevent spiral rotation in an empty tube, which is undesirable with this kind of conveyor.