9 minute read
Design Notes
Crucial temperature control in pharma manufacturing
Edited by Mike Santora • Managing Editor
The line produces pharmaceutical pellets containing the active ingredients in capsules.
HRS Heat Exchangers have helped
a leading Australian pharmaceutical company expand its production capacity by supplying a bespoke system that controls the temperature of solution materials used in capsule manufacturing. Mayne Pharma commercializes branded and generic pharmaceuticals in several product areas. Its manufacturing facility is in Salisbury, South Australia, approximately 12 miles om Adelaide, where it produces tablets, capsules, liquids, and creams. Capsules are a popular method of drug delivery, made of a two-piece dissolvable outer shell containing miniature pellets which carry the active ingredients. The pellets are prepared using a fl uid bed dryer to reduce moisture content and are sometimes spray-coated with a solution containing key ingredients. The spraycoating solutions use an alcohol-based formulation to ensure correct mixing and maintenance of the fundamental chemical properties. The solutions must be prepared and applied within a tight temperature range. Mayne Pharma wanted to expand and upgrade its existing production capacity for capsule production by adding a third fl uid bed dryer and the associated equipment while also improving temperature regulation to its existing lines. HRS Heat Exchangers was asked to provide a quotation for a hot water heater to support the new line but quickly realized that a turnkey package off ering active heating or cooling as required would provide a much better solution. “The alcohol for the solutions is drawn om our outside tank farm,” a spokesperson for Mayne Pharma explained. “One of the issues with the old systems was that on hot days the factory had to wait for the alcohol to cool down before mixing the solutions, which could sometimes take hours. The HRS solution means that we can actively cool it if we need to. Alternatively, if we bring in the alcohol on a cold day, we can heat it up, as necessary.” The solution produced by HRS is a heater/cooler with the ability to reduce hours of cooling time to less than 60 minutes. Due to space constraints in the existing factory and the requirement to connect various pieces of equipment, the unit was supplied on a compact skid with integrated controls and automation of both heating and cooling processes. Other challenges faced by HRS Engineers were uncertainties about heat transfer in the existing tanks and having to overcome unknown pressure losses in a small jacket annulus which would otherwise aff ect the performance of the unit. The HRS unit uses two K Series multipass corrugated tube heat exchangers to maintain solvent temperature at 77 °F or 68 °F as required. The hot water loop is composed of one heat exchanger, a centrifugal pump, safety features, and the necessary ancillaries such as a pressure gauge, temperature transmitter, and manual valves. “The service water is recirculated in a closed loop with the selected solution tank to heat the solvent om 59 °F to the target temperature,” said Ella Taghavi, Technical Sales Engineer at HRS Heat Exchangers. “The process is controlled by temperature transmitters and an autonomous
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Design Notes
control system, and given the importance of the temperature in the process, product temperature is also monitored via a secondary control loop with transmitters located on each solution tank.” Moreover, the cooling section is designed to maintain the product temperature at the targeted set point. Incoming service water om a buff er tank is cooled using chilled water at 42-50 °F om elsewhere in the factory using several passes through the second heat exchanger. “The tank jacket service water is recirculated in a closed loop with the selected solution tank to cool the solvent om 104 °F to the target set temperature of 77 °F or 86 °F,” said Ella. Again, temperature transmitters control the process via an autonomous control loop. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the process of manufacturing, installing, and commissioning the unit ran smoothly, taking less than six months om the order being received to the unit being fully operational. “Covid-19 meant that we weren’t able to undertake Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) at HRS’s manufacturing facility in Spain, but as it was such a straightforward job, we wouldn’t have insisted on this anyway,” said the spokesperson. “We undertook the commissioning on site with remote support om HRS’s Engineer Ella Taghavi in Melbourne, but apart om a couple of phone calls, nothing else was required.” DW
HRS www.hrs-heatexchangers.com
Design Notes
New king pin and thrust bearings save costs for forklift company
Edited by Mike Santora • Managing Editor
When a South A ican forkli rental company was seeking
reduced downtime, expenditure, and fewer equipment repairs, they contacted Vesconite Bearings about its king pin and thrust bearings. This is according to brothers Jacques and Van Rhyn , who, together with their father, Japie du Plessis, supply forkli s to clients in the agriculture, uit, and wine industry through JP Fork Truck Rental, a family-owned and operated company. In the forkli hire industry, clients o en say, “rev it like a rental,” indicating that rental machines are used intensively since maintenance and repair costs are allocated to the rental company. In extreme cases, clients li loads that exceed the capacity of the machine, causing the rear wheels of the forkli to li and then drop, o en causing damage to the axles. “It caused severe damage to the rear axles, and we would have to collect the forkli om our clients to do the repairs and send some of the parts to an engineering workshop to have them fi xed,” said Van Rhyn. “And it used to cost a lot of money,” he added. This was before the rental company moved to Vesconite low- iction wear-resistant king pin bushings and thrust bearings for the main pivot point on the rear axle. The Vesconite parts replaced the conventional needle roller bearings for the king pin and the thrust bearings.
Van Rhyn also said that Vesconite king pin and thrust bearings do break in some instances, but in most cases, they only deform slightly. “If the part has deformed, it usually is an indication of impact, and the bushing is either replaced or shimmed and can be used again,” he said. Jacques, who has completed a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, commented that the rental company appreciates the new king pin and thrust bearings’ hardness while still being ductile enough not to crack or shatter under impact. “It can withstand a lot of wear. It is hard and, at the same time, not brittle,” he noted. The ability to withstand high axial loads and stress is particularly important in forkli thrust bearings due to the weight of the machine’s counterweight, which needs to absorb impact and not crack or shatter. The brothers explained that conventional thrust ball bearings were used before the introduction of Vesconite’s plain bearings. With a ball bearing, the contact between the axle and stub-axle is multiple point loads (contact with the balls) ,and, in the case of a severe impact, the ball bearings shatter or even push outwards, breaking the bearing housing. This causes the steering plates and the stub-axle to bend and the stub-axle to rub up against the axle resulting in extreme wear on the components. Quanti ing the savings om this upgrade is di cult, but the downtime has been signifi cantly reduced, which has led to savings in maintenance and transport costs. “Re-occurring bearing failures were eliminated, which means that these parts are now on a preventive maintenance schedule instead of corrective or failure maintenance schedule,” said Jacques. “This has saved a signifi cant amount of downtime and inconvenience for both our clients and ourselves,” he noted. JP Fork Truck Rental is so impressed with the new parts that it has installed Vesconite mast liners and trunnion bearings in addition to king pin and thrust bearings in about 80% of its fl eet of more than 80 forkli s. It also expects to have all its machines fi tted with new parts by the end of this year. “Clients are happier when you don’t have downtime on your machines,” said Van Rhyn. “This is not an issue anymore.”
DW
Vesconite Bearings www.vesconite.com
Design Notes
Laser triangulation sensors for a range of applications
Edited by Mike Santora • Managing Editor
distance measurements on metallic and structured surfaces. The sensor projects a small laser line onto the measuring object, compensating for any interference. This ensures stable and reliable measurement values. The sensors are used whenever standard laser point sensors reach their limit. The optoNCDT 1420LL laser sensors work with a small laser line rather than a laser point. This allows them to measure accurately even on rough, diff use, and shiny metallic surfaces. Their laser line ensures optical averaging and compensates for irregular surfaces. They achieve reliable, highly precise measurement values on rough surfaces, defects, recesses, and holes. The optoNCDT 1420 LL models are available with measuring ranges of 10, 25, and 50 mm. The standard model has a glass cover pane to protect the receiver unit. In addition, the optoNCDT 1420 series sensors can also be equipped with a protective fi lm to prevent external infl uences om causing damage to the cover glass and unwanted refl ections. The fi lm avoids scratches and streaks, which increases signal stability. The IC2001/USB single-channel converter cable is available as an additional accessory. It establishes a USB connection to the sensors via RS422. The advantage is a costeff ective connection solution for permanent installation. The unshielded cable allows a maximum data rate of 1 MBaud. For demanding measurement tasks, the IF2001/USB interface module is available, which also supports the RS422/USB signal conversion. DW
Micro-Epsilon www.micro-epsilon.com
