Although Syntegon’s tamping-style capsule filling machines have set the standard for precision and durability in capsule filling for decades, that does not mean we rest on our laurels. At Syntegon, we tirelessly pursue innovations that make our industry leading equipment even better. One of the most important of those innovations to come out of Syntegon’s Waiblingen, Germany facility in recent years is slide gate technology for capsule fillers.
Slide Gate Operation
Originally designed to tackle the often-challenging products manufactured by Nutraceutical customers, slide gates have proven to optimize both Nutraceutical and Pharmaceutical capsule filling processes through cleaner running operations, improved yields and more accurate fill-weight control. In addition, use of slide gates can improve equipment flexibility by allowing a single machine to dose powder, pellets or hard-to-compact products through use of the standard tamping/dosing disk system.
Real-World Results
Recent capsule filling trials at our Customer Center in Waiblingen clearly showed significant improvement in the capsule filling process of one of our customer’s most challenging products, simply by use of slide gates. This product, a granular “free-flowing” powder, might normally prove difficult from a filling perspective, as forming a cohesive “slug” would be difficult at best for this particular formulation. However, with the use of slides gates, our capsule-filling experts reduced loss of product to 50% of the losses previously experienced with this product. In addition, Percent Relative Standard Deviation (%RSD) of capsule-fill weights improved from 3.4% without slide gates, to 1.4% with slide gates.
These results are typical of what slide gate use can provide. In other customer trials, we have seen significant increases in product yield from the capsule filling process when slide gates are employed. We have routinely seen customer yields of as low as 94% increased to as much as 99%. Further, slide gates can tackle the most challenging of formulations. Granular “free flowing’ powders and waxy, temperature sensitive blends can be easily processed with slide gates.
If you have an especially challenging capsule-filling process, it might be time to consider the use of slide gate technology. Let Syntegon’s capsule filling experts show you how slide gates can help optimize your capsule-filling process.
