Milling is a fundamental process in both pharmaceutical manufacturing and food production, playing a pivotal role in ensuring product quality, process efficiency, and regulatory compliance. At its core, milling serves four essential purposes:
Avoid Impurities Mixing into the Final Product
It is common practice for bulk materials used in pharmaceutical manufacturing to arrive in bags that may introduce unwanted impurities into the production process.
The Quadro® FlexSift provides an advanced solution by utilizing a gravity-fed system in which incoming material passes through a screening basket that effectively captures and retains contaminants before they can enter downstream processes. This not only safeguards product quality but also simplifies validation, as the retained impurities are easily removed from the contained basket. Engineered for high throughput capacities, the FlexSift enables manufacturers to process greater volumes with enhanced efficiency, while its straightforward cleaning procedure reduces downtime and supports stringent hygiene standards. As a result, customers benefit from increased productivity, improved compliance, and greater operational reliability compared to conventional screening or sifting alternatives.
Make Powders Homogeneous
Achieving powder homogeneity during granulation is essential for delivering consistent physical properties in the end product. In the context of tablet suite production, this requirement becomes even more critical. The process typically incorporates the use of a wet mill following the high shear granulator, which effectively breaks down any lumps formed during granulation, ensuring a uniform wet mass. Subsequently, once the material is dried in the fluid bed dryer, a dry mill is employed to further refine the particle size, enhancing uniformity and flow characteristics.
This carefully controlled sequence not only promotes better blend consistency and compressibility, but it also expedites progression to downstream manufacturing stages, optimizing both product quality and overall process efficiency.
Enhance Bioavailability
Particle size reduction is critical to improving both the bioavailability and compressibility of powders. We offer milling solutions that are engineered to consistently achieve a wide spectrum of target particle sizes and are readily scalable to support production growth.
Our milling technology minimizes heat generation, increases throughput, and delivers a narrower, more uniform particle size distribution. These enhancements translate into improved process outcomes and greater value for our customers.
Reclaim
Thanks to our advanced milling solutions, manufacturers benefit from the flexibility to reprocess tablets and capsules that do not initially meet quality standards. Instead of being forced to dispose of off-spec materials or sell them at a reduced value, these ingredients can be milled and reintegrated into new batches. This capability not only minimizes material waste but also preserves product value, ultimately driving significant improvements to production ROI through enhanced yield and resource efficiency.
Learn more about particle size reduction mills and equipment, best practice and advice from our resource articles.
If you're looking for solutions for other processes involved in pharmaceutical manufacturing, or looking for powder handling and roll compaction equipment that integrates with Quadro mills, view the full IDEX MPT range of pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment.
