Granule Coating Processes

The manufacture of granular products that include active ingredients, fillers, and excipients is common to the food, agricultural, chemical, pharmaceutical, and petrochemical industries. Granules from such operations vary in density and strength depending on the application. The coating of these engineered particles may be required for functional or cosmetic reasons. The coating application may be through a physical deposition process (spraying and evaporation of a solvent based coating solution – film coating) or may be via a reaction of the coating layer with the granule or a second phase added to the granules (such as powder layering). Papers are sought in which the mechanisms by which coatings are applied to and bind with granular materials are sought. Papers are sought in which experimental and/or modeling approaches elucidating the coating process are described.