Fluid Bed Processor : Working Principle and Application

Fluid bed processor (fbp) is a popular material processing technique in different field industries. Quite a several industries use it as a means of transforming the dusty powder into desirable granules.But before I explore the fbp process, let’s review granulation process in general.I think this information is important since it will give you a practical experience of what I am about to discuss, that is what is fluid bed processor and what is the working principle of fluid bed processor? As process pharmaceutical equipment, fluid bed top spray, bottom spray and tangent spray base on process laboratory test, senieer customize for your detail process and machinery requirements.

Please visit our  Fluid Bed Processor Product page  If you want to Purchase.

Senieer development of the fluid bed processor since 1988 is unique in the pharmaceuticals industry. Initially used extremely effective dryer, fluid bed systems quickly developed into granulators with the use of spray nozzles. The bottom spray granulation also called bottom spray wurster coating or bottom spray coating technology enabled extremely effective coating. As a result of the rotor technology, the fluid bed processor was finally predestined for manufacturing pellets. Nowadays, no other technology in the pharmaceuticals industry covers such a wide range of methods so economically in a single system.

Parallel to the development of fluid bed processor and method for granulating, the fluid bed takes into account increased technical requirements and fluid bed granulation process: explosion protection, validation and qualification, documentation, legal requirements, modern control systems and their connection to higher-level materials management systems, total containment, WIP etc. These are only a few of current issues for which you as a client demand competent answers.

With the innovative and swirl generation process a complete fluidization is assured which leads to a high coating uniformity and high yields in the final product. The key challenge is how to achieve optimal and homogenous granule coating. All granules involved in the coating process, regardless of their size, should have the same coating thickness. Senieer focus on fluid bed technology development not only on machinery, but also combine your process requirements.

Senieer FBM Series fluid bed processor is maximum efficiency for drying and granulating. FBM Series fluid bed processor principle ensures an amazingly fast, gentle and even drying. Fluid Bed Dryers are therefore often used in combination with granulators.

When a nozzle is mounted, the Fluid bed dryer or Fluidized bed dryer becomes a granulator. Fluid Bed Granulates are very homogeneous. The type of granulate can be controlled over a wide range by setting different parameters.
All process and wurster coating process parameters can be recorded and printed for analysis.

Senieer FBM Series fluid bed processor working principle offers the possibility to dry, granulate or coat particles in a single machine. Fluid Bed Processor innovative technology allows fluid bed processor top spray systems to be changed to fluid bed processor bottom spray systems in just a few minutes. Top spray and bottom spray with just one single product container.

With FBM Series fluid bed processor technology, you invest only in processes that are actually needed at the time of acquisition.
Everything is already prepared for future requirements. Optionally and additionally needed process components can be retrofitted at any time at a low cost.

Practical: The swiveling lower part of the system can be swiveled away easily for quick filter changes or for cleaning.

This give you a choice between three different fluidized bed system process inserts for drying, granulating, and particle coating.

The all-rounder:

Drying, granulating and coating with the unique fluid bed processor container. Top and bottom spray granulation, bottom spray coating.

The specialist:

Particle coating in the best possible way in the original bottom spray wurster coating (also called fluid bed processor bottom spray). The numbers of fluidization columns are determined by your process requirements.

New:

The Senieer blow-back filter system: Continuous filter cleaning, greater filter area, easy filter change.

In addition to the FBM fluid bed processor equipment, with the twin-chamber filter system, offers the possibility of an uninterrupted process. Apart from the drying or granulating insert, Senieer fluid bed processor bottom spray coating (Wurster insert for fluidized bed coating), tangent spray(rotor insert).

From demanding powder coating to simple drying. Whether granulation/agglomeration, particle coating or pelletizing. Whether the spraying nozzle is at the top(top spray), at the bottom(fluid bed processor bottom spray) or on the side(tangent spray): FBM Series Fluid Bed Processor definition performs all important fluid bed processes.

Maximum flexibility for the technical center: 

FBM Series fluid bed processor capacity is conceived specifically for smaller batch sizes. It is the excellent system for feasibility studies. FBM Series fluid bed processor senieer include one of the most trusted models in its performance class for feasibility and scale-up studies in the scientific research institute, worldwide medical university laboratory research center and laboratory of pharmaceutical company, It is ideal for scale-ups to the pilot scale.

The technical specification of fluid bed processor performs the full range of fluidized bed processes, such as drying and granulating(top spray or with the new Senieer nozzle system), coating(bottom spray in the Wurster or with new Senieer nozzle system) as well as pelletizing( tangent in the rotary insert or manufacturing micro pellets)

Easy handling and easy to clean: All components, such as product containers for drying, granulating, and coating with the Wurster, are easy to install. Everything is easy to handle and very easy to clean. In addition, charging and discharging also can be handled easily. Senieer manufactures every system according to your urs for fluid bed processor.

As a leading FBM fluidized bed manufacturers and supplier, Senieer always not let you down, as we trying to build up our brand which is associated the feedbacks from our customers, so your satisfied is our motivation and passion. What are you waiting for, send inquiry now.

1. GENERAL

FBM Series Fluid Bed multi-processor, pelletizing and coating machine is a piece of multifunctional equipment integrating top spray granulating, coating, tangent spray pelletizing, coating and bottom spray coating, with such features as high efficiency and low consumption of low materials.

Senieer FBM Fluid Bed Processor also called Fluid bed Multifunctional Processor, fluid bed processor can integrate top spray for granulation and coating, fluid bed processor bottom spray for coating, tangent spray for pelletizing, with such features as high efficiency and low consumption of materials. Senieer supplies a single Fluid Bed processing – granulation, drying & pellet coating in one unit.
Senieer fluidized bed equipment have a modular design, the base equipments are designed as 2 bar explosion-proof, heavy-duty 10 bar or 12 bar pressure shock resistant and can be adjusted using various options.

Senieer Fluid Bed Processor systems are used in the pharmaceutical, chemical, health products and food industries as well as in the cosmetics industry throughout the world for drying, granulating, coating and pelletizing. Your benefit more than 30 years of experience in Fluid Bed manufacturing process in pharmaceutical industry technology whether laboratory fluid bed processor device or production equipment.

Features:

• Fluid bed Spray granulator/dryer fluid bed processor design for spray granulation and pellet coating.
• External spray gun is easy to observed and adjusted.
• The design makes the coating uniformity and high roundness, particle damage will not happen.
• High permeability, drying rate is better than centrifugal coater.
• Distribution plate of different air permeability is changeable according to different process condition.
• Solution volume of the spray gun can be adjusted according to the loading capacity.
• Easy to charge and discharge, meet FDA/cGMP requirements
• Pellet coating procedure is faster than bottom spray coating, less material loss

2. Fluid Bed Processor : Main Structure

Senieer fluid bed processors are composed of air handling unit, spray system, filter system, material charging system, WIP washing in place system, safety measures and so on.
Main body is supported by two upright columns.Main body insists four parts: base part, product container, expansion chamber and filter chamber

2.1.Air Handling Unit (AHU) of Fluid Bed Processor

The Inlet Air Handling Unit Consists：

●Pre-filter G4

●Intermediate Filter F8

●Wheel dehumidification

●Electric heating system

●Cold & Hot Air Valve

●Final Filter H13

●Temperature& Humidity Sensor

●Differential Pressure Meter

Differential Pressure Meter (showing-able for F9 and H13 interlocked with HMI) would be offered upon request to support operator periodical cleaning and maintenance of the filters.
A set of appropriate instruments system for air temperature, flow and pressure control is designed to control the granulation chamber inlet air temperature and flow.
The entry air handling unit would be installed in the technical area. The utility engineering flow drawing from client is required for the supplier to make the corresponding granulation sys engineering layout.

2.2 Exhaust Air Handling Unit Consists

●Stainless Steel 304 Impulse Back Blow Dust Collection

●Temperature Sensor

●Differential pressure meter

●Exhaust Air Recycling

The polyester cartridge filtration is anti-static. Blowing of the lines with compressed air or washing by water.

●Exhaust Air Recycling (option item)

By using the exhaust air temperature, through the heating energy transfer system, the heating recovery is converted into heating energy transferred to the inlet of the AHU, and the inlet temperature can be increased 15°C-30 °C. A set of appropriate instrument sys for the survey and control of the air temperature in the granulation chamber exit is designed. The exhaust air handling unit would be installed in the technical area. The utility engineering flow drawing from client is required for the supplier to make the corresponding granulation system engineering layout.

2.3. Fluid Bed Processor : Explosion Proof

The conduits are inside mirror finished. A set of flanges, couplings are involved inside of the supply scope for the interior connection of the conduits.An 2 bar active explosion-proof valve is installed in the fresh air pipe between air handling unit and the pneumatically controlled butterfly valve. This explosion isolation valve is for explosion isolation between air handling unit and fluid bed. When used to generate positive pressure inside the fluid bed chamber, the inlet air explosion-proof valve shall be closed, so that the explosive air will be discharged from the dedicated venting pipe to the outdoor area.

The other 2 bar active explosion-proof valve is installed in the exhaust air pipe between exhaust air control pneumatic butterfly valve and the exhaust air fan filter. Thus this valve is for the explosion isolation between fluid bed main body and exhaust air unit. This valve is always open, even when the machine is at a standstill. It is only closed in the event of a dust explosion. Pneumatic accessory explosion-proof valve cylinder not China brand and shall be FESTO brand.

Summary: An active explosion-proof valve is installed on the inlet and outlet pipes. When used to generate positive pressure inside the fluid bed chamber, the inlet and exhaust air explosion-proof valve shall be closed, so that the explosive air will be discharged from the dedicated venting pipe to the outdoor area.

2.4 Main Tower of Fluid Bed Processor

Gentle drying

Fluidized bed processor’s drying is an especially effective way of drying solids. During fluidization, the moisture is carried away by the drying air. The benefits: excellent heat exchange, ideal drying time. The product is also dried gently.

Granulating

Granulating in the fluid bed is a modern method of creating granulates from powder using liquid bridges. The granulation liquid used for spraying can either be aqueous or contain organic solvents. The moist granulates are dried at the end of the process, if necessary, cooled. Fluid bed granulates are loose and often porous, and are therefore extremely soluble.

Drug layering and coating for pellets

A drug layer is typically applied to starter pellets from a liquid. A functional coating is then added to the active substance pellets. These applications require high precision to ensure that even active substance layers and dense coatings can be produced in a reproducible way. A very wide range of pellets can be produced using aqueous or organic liquids. Alternatively, active substances that are sensitive to moisture can be applied to starter pellets in powder from with the help of powder-layering technology.

Direct pelletizing

During the process of direct pelletizing, active substances in powder form and auxiliary materials are directly transferred to pellets without the addition of a starter core. The centrifugal motion of the rotor or air distribution plate in fluid bed processor causes moistened powder to be rounded into even pellets. Active substances can be formulated into matrix pellets using different functional auxiliary materials, with targeted release of the active ingredient.

The granulation chamber consists

●Base part

●Movable product container（Include Top spray & Bottom spray, tangent spray as option item）

●Expansion chamber

●Filter chamber

The different parts are tightly sealed by food grade silicon gaskets, it includes product container part, spray chamber part and filter chamber part. A set of appropriate instrument sys is designed for the survey and control of the air temperature, pressure and differential pressure (sensor) in the chamber during the processing period.

●Base part

This part is tightly sealed by air bag. The cylindrical lower bowl is concluded with a bumped end and is permanently welded to the lower section of the machine columns. There is a water drain connection at the lowest point with a manual valve. The inlet air duct is designed with a slope angle to the bowl for washing medium draining without leftover.

Product Container

The movable product bowl is air distributor plate consists of a layer and a punched perforated plate underneath. The sight glass and a manual sampling valve are fitted to the side of the product container or vacuum automatic discharging.

Top spray

Pushed by the air intake flow, the materials make upward and downward movements inside the hopper and expansion chamber to form a fluidized status. When the liquids are fed into the system through the pneumatic nozzle(the height is adjustable within liquids shall cover the maximum range when the materials are fluidized whenever possible, so as to achieve centralized granule distribution. During the coating, shall be adjusted to the concentrated area of material movement, so as to enable the liquid drops to spread well on the surface of granules and form even film.

Air distribution plate for top spray, the bottom of the product container, there is a quick clamp device structure, loose the quick clamp and the flange, remove the air distribution plate.

Bottom spray

The advantage in bottom spray coating is that the coating is very even and results in an optimal film quality. The method is suitable particularly for adding specific functions to particles – such as to achieve a defined and reproducible release profile for an active substance by way of the membrane applied.

In bottom spray coating, spraying is done from below upwards. The 5 spray nozzles as are integrated in the flow bed and thus completely surrounded by the product. By combining flow bed and partition, a targeted and controlled movement of the particles can be achieved. This is the requirement for the optimal application of the coating materials to the particles.

The particle speed in the partition also generates high kinetic energy in the product bed which prevents the particles from sticking together when wet. Thus, very small particles can also be coated without agglomeration. Since the jet is located in the middle of the product flow and
sprays evenly, premature evaporation of the carrier solution is prevented. The result is optimal film quality. For targeting specific functions in your product. Bottom spray screen is 180 mesh.

Expansion Chamber

The expansion chamber is hinged on the machine supporting column which is bolted on floor to fix the machine. The sight glasses are designed for the drying process visible supervising. There’re amounting ports for the spray gun equally distributed on one circle of the expansion chamber.

Vacuum charging material

Using high shear mixer for granules, the vacuum charging pipe of the fluid bed processor connect at the lower end of the high shear mixer’s cone mill, after cone mill, transfer the materials into the fluid bed.

If using fluid bed processor separately for granules, the vacuum charging pipe of the fluid bed is directly inserted into the container, which has material powders. The vacuum of the fluid bed directly suction the powders for granulation.

Filter Chamber

The filter chamber is of cylindrical design with two vertical ducts welded at the end with flanges for holding the exhaust pipes by means of a Y-tube. The filter chamber is fixed on the supporting columns via bolts.

The automatic bag lifting system designed inside the column and with wheel accessories for assembly and disassembly of the bag filter. Also has the position checking sensor to check the lifting in place.

The sight glass is mounted on the side of the chamber for visible process supervising. At the bottom of the filter chamber there are two opposite positioned semi-peripheral collars.

The filter housing is divided in two pieces by means of a separation plate. In the upper part of the housing chamber there is respectively one filter seat with suspension rings, attached to a pneumatic cylinder.

The built-in double chamber shaker filters consist of PA/CF (electrostatic prevention). They are respectively sealed to the filter housing by means of two stainless steel rings with inflatable seals described as above.

The bag filters are tightened and relaxed with the up and down movement (shaking) of the two respective shaker cylinders alternately during the processing period.

The filter cloth cleaning is timely controlled through setting its shaking interval or differential pressure by closing the ON/OFF-butterfly valves respectively to alternatively close the shaking bag.

A dust supervising sensor (option item) is designed on the exhaust pipe for alarm and supervising of the filter bag breaking conditions.

2.5 Binder system

The optional choice for fluid-bed granulation or application, not included for fluid-bed dryer

Binder sys consists of:

Binder solution unit

Binder spraying unit

Binder Solution Unit

A mobile tank with mixing and heating function is designed for binder solution preparation. The tank is made in AISI316L, mirror finished with Ra≤0.4um for contact part and AISI 304 for others besides of non-metallic material. The
solution temperature is controlled in measuring and indirectly adjusting way, and this control for the binder solution is separated, does not related with main machine control.

Binder Spraying Unit

Spraying solution feeding through
Watson-Marlow 5 Channels 313series peristaltic pump and sprayed from the nozzle by the compressed air provided from user’s facility. The compressed air is filtered by sterilized cartridge
located near the spraying sys. The pressure of the compressed air for the spraying nozzle is automatically pressure controlled and regulated.
The pressure switch is mounted for control of the nozzle opening and closing status.（The photo shows 8 channels, just as reference.)

3.Control System

The control system is a Siemens Simatic S7-300 series stored program control (PLC). The
operator panel unit is Siemens 12 inch HMI panel. There are two levels passwords to access the panel, which is divided into operator level and engineer level respectively for operation and process management (data setting & modification).
The interlocks and alarms are designed in the control sys and HMI showing-able. The specific page on HMI recording the historic alarms is designed. A4 printer is located around the HMI for process/data and alarm printing.
Main apparatus are applied with Top brand devices. It is compatible to SCADA system profinet (Industrial Ethernet) interface.

The filter chamber, the spray chamber, the base are respectively provided with Dwyer differential pressure meter, monitoring the chamber pressure difference, when the filter chamber
and the spray chamber pressure exceeds the set value, need to increase the bag shaking time or frequency to achieve constant pressure, the spray chamber and the base pressure exceeds the set value, need to increase the fan or open air door at the same time to loose the material, to achieve constant pressure difference.
It shall be equipped easily accessible emergency buttons.

Equipped with isolation module, according to the electrical standard wiring， It is necessary safety devices in accordance to the standards and regulations on labor protection.

Electric control cabinet

All devices within  electrical cabinet  together with cables wires shall be marked and identified in proper way.

All cables (power and signal) for external connection (sensors, motors and drives) must be shielded. The
strong and weak electricity is separated, weak electricity with ground shielding.

4.WIP System

▲ NOTE:

In case the granulation suit with high shear mixer is ordered together with fluid-bed, we strongly recommend customer to apply one pump station for washing both machines to save budget and space. We will design the combined washing sys according to site conditions and machines.

The WIP unit main components:

●High-pressure Pump（GRANDFOS BRAND）

●Valve Group(Gaemi Diaphragm Valve)

●Process Piping

●Compressed Air System

●Electrical Control Part(can be integrated in the equipment PLC control)

Equipment main tower washing process: tap-water washing, purified water washing, purified water mixed detergent washing, sterilization, heat-treated compressed air back blow washing pipeline

Other detachable parts (filter bag, spray gun) must be washed, sterilized, dried, and reused after being washed in tap water.

Wash the surface of the facility (some parts can only be wiped with a slightly damp cloth), wipe, disinfect, dry naturally (or wipe with a clean rag) and reuse. After WIP washing is completed, other import and export pipelines and main equipment can be opened.

If you need to determine the end point, it belongs to CIP cleanliness category, clean end-point speed, PH value, conductivity, residue, etc.

The pump station consists of detergent tank for washing detergents/additives holding. Its corresponding valves and pumps are prepared for the detergent solution preparation applied for each washing cycle.

A set of instruments is designed for survey and control of the washing cycle during the washing process.

Conclusion

Fluid bed processor plays a pivotal role in pharmaceutical material processing. That is, understand the principle of fluidized bed processor control variable parameters to suit the unique machinery and process requirements of your applications. I know this information can be overwhelming for a newbie in the fluid bed equipment industry.

If you are looking forward to Fluid Bed Processor and have detailed requirement ideas in mind, Senieer professional engineer team will be here to help you. Through our 12 hours rapid response services from our 24/7 sales and tech support team, and premier after-sales service, we will be your expert design partner who focus on Fluidized Bed technology more than 30 years. At Senieer, we not only can answer any Fluid Bed Processors machinery technology questions, but also can tell you Fluidized Bed Processor process problems that you may have, please don’t hesitate to contact us anytime for your custom Fluid Bed Processors design projects.

That’s why Senieer team is always ready to help. You tell us what your process requirements and machinery layout is [ Drop a Quote Request ], and we will customize your best Fluid Bed Processor, so what are you waiting for,  Send your Inquiry Now .