Bosch Presents Pharmaceutical Laboratory Equipment at CPHI Worldwide

At CPHI Worldwide, 7–9 October 2014, Bosch Packaging Technology, a leading supplier of process and packaging technology, focusses on compact laboratory systems and showcases equipment for processing liquid and solid pharmaceutical dosage forms.

Exhibits include the FHM 1000 laboratory device for liquid pharmaceutical filling operations as well as three machines for mixing, granulating, coating and tablet pressing from the portfolio of the product brands Hüttlin and Manesty. Thanks to their space-saving and modular design, the laboratory device Solidlab 1, the high-shear mixer granulator Mycromix and the tablet press Manesty Xpress 100 are especially suitable for research and development purposes. The devices for the production of solid pharmaceuticals are available to customers for tests in the modernised and expanded Hüttlin laboratory in Schopfheim, Germany.

Modular filling System for Laboratories

With the FHM 1000 series for liquid pharmaceutical filling operations, Bosch presents semi-automated, modular laboratory devices for pharmacists, as well as for the application in laboratories and early stages of clinical trials. The series currently consists of four modules: the Human Machine Interface (HMI), the filling module with a peristaltic pump, the weighing module and the needle movement. The HMI is the device’s centerpiece, controlling all automatic processes such as in-process control (IPC) filling and weighing, while the containers are manually fed and removed. Further filling modules are planned to offer additional flexibility, for instance a rotary slide piston pump. Moreover, the FHM series significantly facilitates the design of experiments (DoE) for customers by comprehensively recording trial parameters, while also enabling easy scale-up to production systems.

Process Variety and Space-Saving Design

For each step in the processing of solid dosage forms, Bosch also presents several systems of its product brands Hüttlin and Manesty. The laboratory device Solidlab 1 ensures maximum performance on the smallest possible space and handles batches from 0.05 to 2 kg. The machine enables the mixing, drying, granulating and coating of small particles and pellets in the fluid bed module and tablet coating in the coater module. Thus, the modular laboratory equipment can run up to eight processes on one machine. Both modules are operated via a mutual and integrated air handling and control system.

Hüttlin Mycromix, the smallest high-shear mixer granulator in the laboratory equipment range, is also being displayed at CPHI. The machine is suited for research and design purposes and handles batches from 0.1 to 3.5 kg. The bottom drive unit Hüttlin Gentlewing ensures highly homogeneous mixing qualities for granulates. All processes can be easily transferred to production equipment via scale-up.

As far as tablet pressing is concerned, the compact and mobile Manesty Xpress 100 with data acquisition software provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate new tablet formulations. A range of flexible turret options ensures the production of clinical trial batches. Using the same “mpower” operating software as larger production-scale machines of the Manesty Xpress series, the Xpress 100 allows for better comparison of test results.

Research and Pilot Operations for Solid Dosage Forms

The expanded and modernized Hüttlin laboratory in Schopfheim, which was inaugurated in February 2014, is also committed to the production of solid dosage forms. The facility combines the pharmaceutical portfolio focus areas of the Bosch Packaging Technology sites Schopfheim and Waiblingen in Germany with the British site in Knowsley in an area of more than 600 m2. In the expanded centre of competence, 10 machines from the Hüttlin and Manesty product portfolio, as well as from the site in Waiblingen, are available to customers for tests and the development of formulas and processes. The wide range of equipment covers all process steps both in lab und full production scale of solid dosage forms, including the necessary analytics: from mixing, drying, granulating and coating of fine particles and pellets to pressing and coating of tablets and filling of capsules.