L.B. Bohle Explains The Advantages Of Its Tablet Coating Technology Pharmaceutical Online Interview With Reinhard Sievert, Vice President/General Manager, L.B. Bohle
The editorial staff at Pharmaceutical Online recently sat down with Reinhard Sievert, Vice President and General Manager, L.B. Bohle, to discuss tablet coating and the competitive advantages of the company's offerings. Mr. Sievert also offers his opinion on the future of the processing equipment industry. Enjoy the discussion.
For more information, or to contact L.B. Bohle, click here.
What are the biggest challenges facing L.B. Bohle in today's marketplace?
The pharmaceutical industry is becoming more and more cost driven. This has an impact on how pharmaceutical equipment is bought. Very often the equipment offered at the lowest price is chosen for new projects.
L.B. Bohle's major challenge is to reduce product development and production costs without sacrificing innovative technology and quality.
How would you characterize Bohle's product line to someone who is not familiar with your offerings?
L.B. Bohle is not only a supplier of process and handling technology. Our organization is extremely driven by quality and technology. We consider ourselves as a company which supplies turnkey solutions to our customers. This includes equipment, documentation, as well as our technical service. Our focus is based on this and we are interested in building long lasting relationships with our customers.
What product in your line are you currently experiencing significant interest in from your target market?
At present we are experiencing extreme interest in our Tablet Coating Technology, as well as in our newly developed High Containment Split Butterfly Valve.
There are a number of companies that manufacture and sell tablet coaters. What are the competitive advantages of the Bohle Film Coater?
There are three major competitive advantages compared to other conventional tablet coating systems:
- Efficiency – as far as we know, there is not another tablet coater on the market, which can coat as fast as our coater. Furthermore, we reduced the loss of coating suspension to a level below 3%. In other words, approx. 97% of the solution ends up on the tablet and not in the dust collector, nor does it get deposited inside the pan like the spray arm assembly.
- Uniformity – L.B. Bohle received several orders from customers to whom coating uniformity (functional coats like for osmotic applications or when actives were dissolved in the coating suspension) was extremely important. We were able to achieve an RSD (relative standard deviation) value of about 2-3%. Yet even for simple color coat applications this has an enormous advantage, as process times can be shortened significantly. Instead of the common 2 to 4% weight gain, which is needed to achieve a nice uniform color, the Bohle coater needs only approx.1% weight gain.
- CIP-Cleaning – The Bohle Coater can be supplied with an optional, real CIP-cleaning system. There is absolutely no manual cleaning involved. This can be validated.
Even in this day and age lots of pharmaceutical production facilities operate very inefficiently. One of the main reasons for this is the traditional batch production. However, in due time, the industry will shift (slowly but surely) to more continuous production. L.B. Bohle has already developed some continuous production technologies, and you can be sure that we will invest further into these technologies.
Born and raised in a German farming community, Mr. Sievert absolved an apprenticeship as a tool and die cast mechanic after graduation from the German school system. He attended a technical college and after serving the required time in the German military studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kassel, Germany.
Mr. Sievert found employment with Leybold GmbH in Cologne, Germany, with major activities in product management and technical sales of vacuum components and vacuum process equipment. Mr. Sievert came to the United States the first time in 1984 for two years, working for Leybold's US subsidiary, Leybold Vacuum Products, in Pittsburgh, PA. Major activities involved the introduction of new, closed loop cryogenic refrigeration systems to the electronics -, space simulation -, and NMR scanning industries.
In 1986, Mr. Sievert joined the mechatronic division of Sartorius GmbH in Goettingen, Germany, and was responsible for sales and marketing activities in North America and parts of Europe. In 1990, Mr. Sievert was transferred for one year to Chicago to set up a new joint venture company (Sartorius Instruments) between Satorius GmbH and Baxter Corporation. In 1996, Mr. Sievert took on a new challenge and started his employment as Vice President and General Manager with L.B. Bohle at their US operation in Philadelphia, PA.
L.B. Bohle is specialized in design/engineering of OSD facilities in terms of process equipment (blending, granulation, tablet coating, and milling) and handling equipment (material transfer) to the pharmaceutical and neutraceutical industry. High Containment for processing and handling of potent / toxic products is integral part of Bohle's technology.
Source: L.B. Bohle, LLC