(308e) Continuous Low Dose Powder Feeder

Continuous feeding of small quantities of powder is a challenge in a wide range of processes and industries. In pharmaceutical industry, highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and very low density excipients e.g., silicon dioxide, are notoriously hard to feed with currently available commercial technology. The novel micro-feeder system is capable of feeding powders with different particle sizes and flow properties in low dose range of 1-80 g/h. It is based on active volumetric displacement. For feed rate determination the feeder is combined with a high precision balance at the outlet.

The talk will discuss opportunities and challenges of the novel device for continuous feeding of various powder bulk materials. In addition, approaches to overcome variation of displacement density in powder bed due to wall friction or relaxation are presented. A case study shows the integration in a continuous manufacturing line. The results indicate high reproducibility and accuracy of the system and its high potential to support continuous manufacturing lines consistently with low amounts of powders.