Drying active pharma ingredients hold utter importance in the process of creating uniform materials for packing. The materials being dried are usually solids that have been isolated by filtration following crystallization from water or one or more organic solvents. Changes in the distribution of particles, moisture content, and crystal form, can modify these operations and have significant effects on the efficiency of the dryer of most methods.
During product development, it’s also critical to establish realistic drying specifications for these materials drying to “zero” moisture content. Reliable analytical methods for monitoring drying or product release are also crucial in this process as well as the establishment of safe drying temperature ranges which encourage drying efficiency while preventing degradation of the products, melting, or agglomeration.
What is the Pharmaceutical Drying Equipment?
For laboratory and small-scale operations, the vacuum tray dryer is the most common. It can be scaled up to a reasonable size. It is dependable and has no moving components, but it requires a lot of effort to use and clean. Since solvent wicking can lead to a crust form on a cake, it is commonly used for smearing, mixing, checking, or any other after-drying process.
Detailed Product Specifications
Product quality dried in vacuum tray dryers in research laboratories can vary from products dried in drying equipment in the pilot. Particle attrition or agglomeration can cause significant changes in particle size, compressibility, and flow characteristics. As a result, generating forecasts based on the results of tray samples isn’t valid when scaling up with new equipment. The sample used in the test must be representative of the final process material.
Operating Instructions for Industrial Process Dryers
- Monitor all operations, including maintenance and cleaning, in the equipment logbook.
- Ascertain that corrosive fumes do not interact with the dryer’s surfaces.
- Polyethylene tray liners could be used depending on the drying temperature.
- Determine the approximate amount of solvent to be trapped or plan on monitoring the solvent trap level to guarantee appropriate capacity.
- For air-sensitive or hygroscopic substances, a compressed gasses supply line should be included to release the vacuum.
- The nitrogen also helps to maintain condensation on the desiccant glass.
- Make sure you leave an entrance with unfettered solvent removal when using covered drying trays.
- Place the item in the dryer, vacuum it, and then heat it. This can assist prevent a bolus of solvent from overwhelming the solvent trap condenser when the system is first turned on.
When determining the operating parameters, the product’s temperature stability must be taken under consideration to make sure that it’s not heated beyond its safe operating temperature. The lower the evaporation temperature and the greater the temperature difference between the dryer and wetter surfaces, the higher the vacuum. However, please remember that meeting the conditions may necessitate a certain minimum temperature. Finally, it is usually much easier to tell exactly when drying is complete by monitoring the actual product temperature during the drying cycle rather than just the heating rate. Promas is a popular supplier of different dryers.
