If you’re looking for a high-performance sugar-coating pan, then this guide is for you.
It answers all questions you have been asking about this sugar coating machine.
So, if you want to be an expert in the sugar-coating pan, read this guide.
A coating pan is a piece of equipment that will form an organic or aqueous film pellet, tablets, or small granules.
Sugar coating Pan
It is a technique of covering pellets, tablets, or granules with a sugar coating.
Coated tablets
A sugar coating pan is a machine that will coat tablets, pellets, and granules with sugar.
Pharmaceutical industries use various coating techniques.
Some factors that influence the design of a sugar coating pan include:
During the sugar coating process, you need to supplement the personal skill of the sugar coater.
This is done by having the correct designs and a versatile coating pan.
There are several benefits of sugar-coating products.
Some of them include:
Sugarcoating has several advantages, and it also has some disadvantages.
Some of them include:
Here are some common issues that can occur during the sugar coating process and how to solve them:
Sugar coating pan
Products may crack sine they may expand during or after the sugar coating process.
This happens due to stress relaxation of absorption of moisture.
Solve this problem by using a seal coat or extending the duration between sugar coating and compaction of products.
This may happen due to low levels and concentrations or even an absence of polymers.
Solve this issue by adding polymers to the coating solution.
Also, when you use a large number of pigments and insoluble fibers, it may cause the coating to chip.
Combat this problem by lowering the number of fillers.
This happens when there are high edge walls or flat surfaces of the products.
Correct this by altering or modifying the design of the punch that makes the products.
Uneven coloring will happen when there is a poor distribution of the coating solution.
In this case, add satisfactory levels of liquids and make sure it mixes properly.
There is also the issue of color migration that happens due to low drying or rapid drying.
Solve this by correcting the drying conditions and use pigments.
When you have an uneven sub coat layer, solve this by achieving the optimum smoothing during the sub coating process.
Also, wash extra color coating pigments and avoid surplus color coating liquid.
Besides, extreme drying between color applications can cause irregular coloring.
Solve this by regulating the drying conditions.
This will happen when the available inverted sugar is in excess.
Solve this by not excessively heating the sucrose syrup while in acidic environments.
The main issue happens when there is additional moisture in the final coat of the products.
Solving this entails properly drying the products to make sure the moisture levels are optimum.
This will cause an irregular coating on the surface of products.
Aim to achieve a smooth coating before conducting the polishing step.
Several industries use a sugar coating pan in their production process, and they include:
The various coatings that one can apply on tablets include:
Coating pan
The sugar coating process involves several steps in which you may add a variety of additives.
These additives may assist in the formulation process to achieve a specific function.
Some of these raw materials include:
This is the main ingredient that you will incorporate in the coating process.
The other substitutions you can use include:
Other sugar mixtures you may use include:
The fillers will make up the structure and add weight to the coatings, and they include:
They function by adding color on the coating and cover irregularities that are on the core of products.
Examples include:
These will enhance the durability and flexibility of coatings by creating a compaction while ascertaining consistent form.
Some examples include:
Flavors will enhance the acceptability of products with consumers.
Examples include:
These agents will smooth out the surface of the coatings.
It accomplishes this by lubricating and binding fines that develop during the sugar coating process.
An example is the consolidation of syrup and acacia gum.
They will minimize the friction between sugar-coated products hence preventing powder from forming during the drying stage.
Some examples of lubricants include:
These stabilizers will inhibit phase sedimentation or separation of the coating solution during the sugar coating process.
They include:
It will improve the intensity and reflectivity of the color of the coatings.
Some examples include:
Film coating
Film coating involves coating products by surrounding them with thin layers of polymeric substances.
Sugarcoating involves coating products with a solution of sucrose and water.
Film coating is not as shiny as sugar coating.
The products in sugar coating will have a higher overall weight than in film coating.
It is possible to include logos and break lines in film coating and not sugar coating.
Operators with high skills are necessary to conduct sugar coating than for film coating.
Multiple stages occur during the film coating process, whereas there is only one stage in sugar coating.
The coat is functionally and easily adaptable for controlled release during the film coating process.
Besides, sugar coating products are not functional and readily possible aside from enteric coating.
The batch coating time in film coating is lower in film coating than in sugar coating.
The techniques one can use in the sugar-coating process include:
It involves applying syrup at room temperature.
The three steps in this technique include:
It is also known as a two-component coating process.
This technique is intricate than the plain sugar-coating technique and involves two stages:
This process involves applying hot syrup to the products.
Heating the syrup above room temperature will increase its viscosity.
Preventing the crystallization of sugar makes this process fragile.
This is because you need to insulate and heat all parts of the equipment.
Several parts make up a sugar coating pan to ensure it works efficiently.
These parts include:
Parts of sugar coating pan
Design of coating pan
These parts provide rotational force to the sugar coating pan at various speeds.
It has both the Programmable Logic Controller [PLC] and Human-Machine Interface [HMI].
Operators can key in variables and from a single station, monitor the entire sugar coating process.
This unit comprises the pump, nozzle, and tank.
It also assists in maintaining the cleanliness of the sugar coating pan.
These pumps will assist the sprayers in stabilizing the atomization process.
They provide a force that will change the coating solution into tiny droplets that will coat the products.
The guide plates will guide the products out of the sugar coating pan after the sugar coating process.
The coating process involves repetitive sucrose-based solution application in the coating pan to cover products.
There are four main processes in the sugar coating process:
It involves hardening the surface of a product by placing a moisture barrier.
Before the sugar coating process begins, seal the core and completely dry it so that it is free from moisture.
After the core is dry, apply a sealing coat to shield the core from absorbing moisture.
The coating will harden the surface of products and protect the upcoming processes.
Cores of tablets are fragile and will disintegrate during the sugar coating process.
This means the core would break when the coating begins.
Organic solvents make up water-proofing sealants and are usually water-soluble.
The porosity of tablets will influence the sealant formulation one will use.
Highly porous materials will soak up the sealant solution, thus inhibiting the formation of a uniform coat.
This means one will apply a second coat once the first one dries to ensure complete sealing of the core.
Common sealants include:
The sugar coating process starts from a sub coating stage where the sides of tablets form the desired shapes.
It involves alternating sum or syrup solution with dusting powder such as talc or calcium carbonate.
Subcoating methods include:
This step involves smoothing irregular features on the surface of the tablets.
Polishing and refinishing the tablet happens until it has the look one prefers.
Also, this process will increase the overall size of the tablet.
The operator can use a grossing syrup to eliminate large irregularities on the surface of tablets.
The grossing syrup will have solid particles that can fill spaces in the tablet better than a sugar solution.
Applying 60% to 70% of sugar solids can smooth the tablet.
The solution has a mixture of pigments, starch, gelatine, acacia, and opacifier where necessary.
In this stage, you can add color to produce a homogenous coating layer.
This is a vital stage as you will achieve the correct color by coating using several sugar solutions.
In the past, dye was the main color as it sticks to the surface of products during the drying stage.
Today, pharmaceuticals use approved aluminum lake pigments.
The tint the tablets through dispersion.
Lakes produce dyes but are oil dispersible, hence you can mix them with oils and fats.
It can disperse or suspend in other carriers like glycol, propylene, glycerin, and sucrose.
This step involves making the surface of the tablet appear shiny.
Application of candelilla wax, beeswax, carnauba wax, or hard paraffin will enable the polishing to happen.
Also, edible ink can apply marking or brands on the surface of tablets.
The operation begins by continuously feeding pellets or tablets in the coating pan systematically.
Large volumes of process air will heat the tablets as they enter and move in the drum.
Spray guns will apply the coating solution as the product is moving in the coating pan.
Homogeneously mix the tablets to form a uniform coating.
A shallow bed will allow the tablets and pellets to pass via the spraying zone into the discharge area.
Finally, the products will go via the conveyor belt to the collection, storage, inspection, and packaging stages.
A lot of material will coat tablets and pellets.
This means it is inadvisable to crush and recompact the sugar-coated products during recovery.
A common procedure involves washing off the sugar from the tablets.
Dip the coated tablets in a water bath to remove the coatings.
After removing the coating, dry the tablets by turning them inside the coating pan using a warm stream of air [50°C].
However, this process has its difficulties due to the handling problems.
Coating pan parameters
Here are some ideal characteristics of these products:
There are several types of tablet coating machines in the market.
Here are the three basic types:
It is a circular metallic pan that tilts on a benchtop stand and has a diameter of 15 and 200 cm [6 to 80 inches].
An electric motor can rotate the pan.
Once you load a batch of tablets in the pan, set it to rotate, and the tablets will tumble within the pan.
Spray guns will apply the coating solution in an atomized form.
These tiny droplets will form a rapid and even distribution that introduction of the coating solution as a liquid.
It achieves drying efficacy by:
This pan is fully enclosed and will have a partial or fully perforated drum that revolves on its straight axis.
All coating happens inside the pan with the help of spray nozzles.
Some examples include:
1. Driacoater
Supply and exhaust channels are part of the drum wall as reinforcing elements.
Dry air gets in the system via hollow ports on the edge of the drum.
The drum will rotate and dip inside the tablet bed during the drying process.
Dry air passes and fluidizes the tablet bed, and the exhaust air leaves via the back of the pan.
2. Accela-cota or Hi-coater units
They come with perforations that allow solvent and aqueous coating procedures.
Here, the drying air will circulate the drum as it passes via the tablet bed.
Finally, it goes out via the perforations in the drum.
The chamber of this system is a vertical cylinder.
Fluidization will occur as a stream of air flows to the top part of the system.
Tablets at the center of the chamber will move upwards, then go to the exterior then downwards in the wall of the chamber.
It then enters the stream of air again from the lower part of the chamber.
Introduction of the coating solution happens from the upper and lower part of the chamber through the spray nozzles.
There is difficulty in fully coating tablets as the core is fragile and prone to chipping and abrasions.
This is due to tablets getting in contact with one another and with the wall of the chamber.
The two principal systems that will apply spray coating solutions include:
1. Airless System applying High-Pressure
It uses high pressure to deliver an airless liquid spray at temperatures ranging from 250 and 3000 PSIG [1.7 and 20 MPa].
The liquid passes via small orifices with diameters of between 0.02 and 0.2 mm forming fine droplets.
Fluid pressure, orifice dimension, and viscosity will control the degree of atomization.
2. Atomized Systems applying Low Pressurized Air
Pumping of liquids happens via large orifices whose diameter is between 0.05 and 2.5 mm.
It also applies low-pressure levels ranging between 5 to 50 PSIG [35 – 350 kPa].
Low air pressure will contact the liquid stream above the atomizer to achieve a fine spray.
Air pressure, liquid cap orifice, fluid viscosity, liquid pressure, and air cap design will influence atomization degree.
It is important to have enough information before you purchase a sugar coating pan.
There are several manufacturers, and these pans have specific capabilities and properties.
This means sugar coating pans will vary from one manufacturer to another.
Here are some factors to consider while purchasing a sugar coating pan:
The quantity of the flow of air within the bed will influence the solvent amount which you can get rid of in the coating procedure.
It’s possible for one to determine the coating solution you need by weighing the batch of tablets you are to coat.
The coating solution you will require will depend on the surface of the products you want to coat.
Besides, the nature and dimension of the products will influence the coating solution you require and the coating environment.
The whole area to weigh ratio will be low as you move from small to larger products.
This will include all products that will stick on the product’s surface together with the solvent that carries the ingredients.
The pan will eliminate solvent during the coating process as air flows via the sugar coating pan.
The amount you have will influence the sugar coating pan you can afford.
Ensure that you always purchase one that will meet your production needs.
Coating materials that stick on the walls of the pan determine the efficiency of the sugar coating pan.
This is because conventional sugar coating is less efficient, and one accepts around 60% of its coating.
Sugarcoating pans come in different shapes and sizes.
Ensure to purchase a machine that will fit your working station.
For instance, larger sugar coating pans are suitable for commercial companies.
It is vital to obtain a machine that meets all the necessary quality standards.
This ensures the machine is reliable, effective, and acceptable in the market.
Ensure the sugar coating pan is easy to service.
This means making repairs or replacements without using a technician.
Also, make sure it is easy to obtain spare-parts should a need arise.
Many industries nowadays incorporate machines that have some level of technology.
This makes it possible for you to achieve high production capacity and produce quality coatings.
Here are some reasons as to why it is important to sugar coat tablets:
Sugar-coated tablets
Quality standards will ensure the sugar coating pan meets all safety and health protocols.
The key quality standards that a sugar coating pan should conform to include:
This ensures the products are acceptable in the Jewish and Muslim communities.
All companies in the world accept this quality standard even though it applies to European Economic Areas.
It ensures the sugar coating pan meets all management systems that ensure high quality.
Current Good Manufacturing Practice quality standard ensures that sugar coating pans undergo:
FDA will protect the public health, ensuring safe, efficient, and secure sugar-coated products.
Several factors determine the success when it comes to installing a sugar coating pan.
Here are factors worth considering:
Sugar coating pan
Sugarcoating pan identification features include:
Check for all manufacturer, machine maintenance, and manual.
Also, make sure you have the diagram of the machine.
Make notes of all safety features the manufacturer has in the sugar coating pan.
Compare the specifications of the machine with what the manufacturer includes.
Take note of the specific lubricant the machine uses and if it gets in contact with materials.
Ensure the availability of all components that make up a sugar coating pan.
A sugar coating pan can experience some problems that you can easily solve, and they include:
Solve this by lowering the drying conditions which will minimize the roughness.
Also, add solvents and reduce polymers to the mixture, and reducing the spray rate.
This is due to uneven mixture and spraying of products.
Properly adjust the spraying instructions and change plasticizers and additives.
Solve this by adjusting the number of plasticizers in the solution and using polymers with high molecular weight.
Combat this issue by using low drying conditions and moderate temperatures.
Sugar-coated tablets have a coat of sugar around them while non-sugar coated have no sugar coating.
It is easy to swallow sugar-coated tablets than it is to swallow tablets that have no sugar coating.
Tablets with a sugar coat exhibit a high shelf life as the coat protect the tablet from physical and mechanical damage.
Non-sugar coated tablets disintegrate faster than tablets that have a sugar coating.
Tablets with a sugar coat usually contain a bad taste and odor.
Besides, most non-sugar coated tablets have a good odor and taste, therefore need no coating.
Sugar-coated tablets take more than half an hour to disintegrate.
They will only disintegrate in the right condition.
Also, they may not disintegrate when you expose them to the acidic conditions of the stomach.
This factor will protect the tablet from extreme stomach environments.
A sugar coating pan will cost anywhere from 450 US dollars to 30000 US dollars.
At SaintyCo, we design and manufacture a range of film coating machines you can easily integrate with tablet press machines.
Contact us today for all your sugar coating pan machines.