(267i) A Detailed Comparison of Comparison of Traditional Pan Coating to Novel Consigma Tablet Coating

Tablet coating is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. It is typically performed in a batch coating process. In a typical batch coating process, hundreds of kilos of tablets are coated for hours at low rotation rates. The pharmaceutical industry has decades of experience in using batch tablet coater and limited experience for the ConsiGma tablet coater. In recent years continuous manufacturing is increasingly used in the pharmaceutical industry. It promises to deliver high product quality while simultaneously increasing production flexibility. GEA developed the ConsiGma line(s) to be integrated into granular downstream processes. The specially developed tablet coater is unique in its design and process mechanics. It uses high rotation rates compared to traditional drum batch coaters and allows lower process cycle times.

Computational methods are increasingly used in the pharmaceutical industry as well and facilitate a deeper understanding of the process mechanics. The discrete element method (DEM) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are two methods that allow the transition from empirical process design to a mechanistic understanding of the individual process units. This work used CFD-DEM simulations to compare a laboratory batch coating process to the coating process inside the ConsiGma tablet coater.

The goal of this work is to present a comprehensive overview of the similarities and differences between the two coating processes. For both coaters, a small design of experiments is performed. The simulations are analyzed for the temperature and coating mass / liquid distribution, forces acting on the tablets during the coating process, cycle time, spray residence time, and spray mass per spray zone visit. The results give a comprehensive overview of the similarities and differences in both coating process types and should simplify the scaling between the two. This work can help accelerate the scale between the two coater types