GOALI: Fundamental Studies into the Mechanism of Product Variability in Pan and Rotating Drum Coating Equipment

West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown WV

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract It is proposed to examine and quantify the batch coating of large particles. Such chemical coats may have in addition the role of controlling the rate of release of specified chemicals from the particles themselves. In many important industrial applications (such as pharmaceuticals , for instance), predictability of the chemical process is essential. Thus, it is critical that each particle be coated in as much uniformity with the next one as possible. To accomplish this goal by the traditional hit and miss sequence of experiments, from laboratory to factory floor, is frustrating and expensive. The proposed effort is to establish the basic theory of the "drum"coating process, by a combination of scalable experiments and generic modeling of the results. The experiments will identify those conditions where coating will be uniform across the sample under study. The modeling techniques will be borrowed from renewal theory, supplemented by mechanistic representations of the component processes (such as "avalanching") . High speed imaging will provide a description of the behavior of the coated material over time. The model which will emerge of the laboratory experiments will be verified at the associated industrial sites (Merck, Alza).