News items October 2007

Modulomix: continuous mixer for the pharmaceutical industry Especially suited for the pharmaceutical industry, Hosokawa Micron BV in Doetinchem has developed the Modulomix, a continuous mixer based on the proven Cyclomix technology. Therefore, in the development process of new medicines, considerable time and money savings can be achieved, especially during the upscaling phase. Continuous production is becoming an increasingly important concern in the pharmaceutical industry. Hosokawa Micron B.V. has responded to this development by introducing the Modulomix. The great advantage of continuous production is that any desired quantity can be produced with the same small mixer, thus offering higher flexibility while reducing costs. In developing the Modulomix, Hosokawa Micron B.V. opted for the Cyclomix technology due to the high mixing efficiency achieved and its good agglomerating characteristics. These characteristics are important when medicine powders must be

Vakumix AG, a reputed German manufacturer of mixing systems and rotor-stator in-line homogenizers has commercialised the first system which is capable of homogenizing and dispersing inside a pipe-line without the need for process vessels. By integrating 2 or more homogenizing systems, various substances can be homogenized, mixed or even dispersed within the boundaries of the piping The process consists of a main stream and one or more additional dosing streams. If required, 2 contra-rotating rotors may be installed to maximise shear rates. Dosing is controlled by flow-meters or dosing pumps and operational system parameters are monitored and recorded. The Vakumix inpipe mixer is an extremely flexible, continuous solution to which various operational sequences can be integrated. It caters for a wealth of different liquid or viscous products in a range of temperatures. The equipment is also designed for CIP and SIP.

Mid-intensity mixing The Vitomix: Fast and Compact Hosokawa Micron B.V. has developed a new mixer under the name Vitomix. This mixer bridges the gap between low shear and high shear mixing. Striking aspect is its extremely compact design. Thanks to a partly cylindrical structure, an adapted conical shape and bottom, the same volume is achieved with a considerably reduced structural height. The Vitomix has a double ribbon screw. Linear screw speeds of 4.5 m/s can be achieved. Thanks to the higher speed and mixing intensity, Vitomix mixers can achieve higher output, power consumptions of up to 30 kW are common. The construction of the drive arm is designed in such a way that blind angles and dead zones are almost completely eliminated, resulting in minimal residue formation. The construction of the access door has been adapted. The door and opening are cut under an angle of 45° with the aid of water-jet cutting Technology which guarantees an optimal dust- and watertight sealing. Two

Sartorius presents: new products for connecting weighing components over Ethernet Connecting components in Ethernet networks is a seminal topic in the process industry, bringing the vision of a universal data transfer method within a company one step closer to reality. This theme is already being addressed by Sartorius today presentating two new products: the X3 process indicator and the PR5220 process transmitter. A special highlight of both instruments is their convenient, state-of-the-art connectivity for Ethernet networks. The standard Ethernet TCP/IP interface enables trouble-free integration in existing computer networks. Basic transmission of weight values, process status messages or other information over a network is fast and easy. For identification of scales within the networks, the X3 and PR5220 are assigned names and IP addresses. Configuration of these new instruments is remarkably uncomplicated. When the product`s IP address is entered in a browser, such as the Microsoft Internet Explorer, the product`s own home page opens

Florence, KY (August 17, 2007) Sweco, A Business Unit of M-I L.L.C., today announced its recent acquisition of Ecutec Barcelona S.L., a company that specializes in classifying, coating and grinding fine and ultra-fine powders. Ecutec provides complete integrated turnkey systems as well as precision, stand-alone equipment. Brenda Beers-Reineke, President, said, `This natural extension of the Sweco product line offers significant synergies allowing Sweco to better serve new and current markets. The addition of Ecutec positions Sweco as a single source for classifying material from 1 inch to 1 micron.` Philip Barthelmess, Managing Director of Ecutec, said `Sweco`s worldwide sales channels and technical expertise provide a unique opportunity to expand Ecutec`s successes beyond the European market.` With more than 60 years of separation technology experience, Sweco serves the pharmaceutical, chemical, food, minerals, paper and many other industries with a complete

Intensomix: Mid shear Mixer Hosokawa Micron bridges the gap between low shear and high shear mixing with the Intensomix The Intensomix is a mid shear mixer. This cylindrical mixer has a ribbon paddle agitating rotor in the form of a central shaft with three agitation blades attached to it. The shape of the agitation blades ensures the transport of the material upwards. Great advantage of this is the realisation of a much more compact cylindrical design with a slightly conical bottom. The three agitation blades are positioned in a way that a certain amount of friction occurs along the wall during mixing. Linear speeds of the rotor of the Intensomix are in a range of 1 m/s to 10 m/s. Two lump breakers of 7.5 kW each are placed in the sidewall for efficient admixing of fluids. The inspection door has been provided with waterjet-cut sealings under an angle of 45°, thus guaranteeing an optimal dust- and watertight closure. The Intensomix is produced in a range up to 25,000 litres. The

Designed specifically to process demanding powders With this recent addition to the product range of bag filling, palletising and stretch hooding equipment Bag Treatment Holland (BTH) introduces a new machine which is designed specifically to process demanding powders such as food ingredients, milk and chemical powders. “With the Condor we offer a realistic proposition, a high value machine with a high ROI.” said Luc Sterckx, BTH Sales Manager. Swift, safe and solid To ensure the Condor fits the needs of the market the design is based on research into the nature of high integrity production processes and information acquired from the close collaboration with BTH customers. This has resulted in a design in which the heart of the machine is formed by a carousel filling station. This open structure offers easy accessibility for the cleaning between product batches so the change over time is reduced to a minimum. To prevent the dangerous product build-up in the machine wireless applications are used as much as possible,

NEW 260 projection! Tapco Inc. offers a full line of CC-XD (Xtreme Duty) elevator buckets, designed for the most extreme thruput elevators. They offer even more wear and impact strength than any other on the market. CC-XD fills and discharges exactly the same as the classic CC-HD style. Injection molded with 35% more resin in the entire bucket, the CC-XD will become the standard of the industry. - Longer life and exceptional strength. - Molded with 35% MORE prime virgin resin throughout the entire bucket – not just at critical wear points. - Straight sides and high ends aid in filling and discharge. - Equal or greater carrying capacity of equivalent size steel buckets. - Smooth, rounded front lip and sides are gentle on the material being handled. - 14 sizes: 300-180 to 500-280. - Available in polyethylene, polyurethane and nylon.

Inline hose with 5.5 times service life Masterflex AG has developed a unique process for producing hoses which are seamlessly smooth on the inside, thus achieving hose qualities with a previously unknown smoothness. “The Master polyurethane inline hoses offer the unique combination of maximum abrasion resistance with enormous wall thicknesses, low weight and amazing bending radii”, explains Detlef Herzog, Managing Director of Masterflex AG. “And so they are a real competitor to the heavy rubber hose.” The patented process combines the advantages of the extruded hose with the special characteristics of the materials with which the hose’s smoothness is achieved. During manufacture, the hose is furnished with different hi-tech components. In the case of conventional hoses, the construction-induced weld seam is a major weak spot because the corrosion of the material to be conveyed takes place on the edges of the seam. By cleverly combining the materials, the hose is suitable for all manner of fields

A new fully automated sample dispersion device significantly extends visualisation and data analysis The Morphologi G3 provides microscope quality images and delivers statistically significant data through the rapid analysis of hundreds of thousands of particles with little or no user intervention. As with any analytical procedure, good sample preparation is a critical requirement and a major development in the Morphologi G3 is the novel fully integrated dry powder dispersion system. Precise software control of all dispersion parameters ensures highly reproducible dry powder dispersions with consistent and controlled particle orientation across a broad range of samples. The sample is completely enclosed and the system allows easy dispensing from bulk materials and the preparation of multiple aliquots. With the Morphologi G3 lack of data is never a problem - for every particle measured there is a choice of 20 different parameters to describe size and shape. The Morphologi G3 offers a new software tool to compare and cluster data to find differences and similarities

Recipe management with Sartorius ProBatch+ The Sartorius ProBatch+ software offers a variety of functions for managing raw materials, creating recipes, preparing and starting production runs, generating and saving reports – in short: it ensures efficient monitoring and control of batching processes. With this powerful system, users can perform simple applications using just a single scale and also larger process automation tasks with up to 16 production lines operating in parallel and with up to 16 automatic process vessel or hopper scales. All scales run in parallel and can be operated and monitored simultaneously. Flexible connection of Sartorius ProBatch+ to the X-Family or other process logic controllers, such as Siemens S7, guarantee the highest precision and reliability of processes. The Windowsâ user interface in ProBatch+ makes it easy for users to create recipes. Batch and special process steps, such as mixing, heating and cooling, etc., are entered in the recipes. At the end of

Whitehouse Scientific has extended the library of papers, articles and technical downloads available on what is now the most visited section of the company’s website. The collection includes around 40 papers and published articles authored by managing director Dr Graham Rideal, an acknowledged expert in the area of calibration standards and former chairman of the Filtration Society. These cover a range of topics in filter testing, sieve analysis and particle characterisation. All articles can be freely downloaded

Whitehouse Scientific has responded to an increased interest in automated measurement of large particle sizes by introducing single size glass beads of greater than 1 mm in diameter. Traditionally, sieve analysis has been used for such large sizes, which are also near the upper limit of some laser diffraction methods of analysis. As image analysers now have a firm foothold in this sector, there is a requirement for NIST traceable reference calibration beads. The Monodisperse Standards have very narrow particle size distributions and come in sets of five single shot bottles, together with a NIST traceable test certificate. Application areas include pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, polymers and speciality chemicals.

Finally, a top-quality tap sieve shaker is available which meets RETSCH’s high product standards: the AS 200 tap! The combination of horizontal circular sieving motion with vertical tapping motion is specified in various standards for particle analysis (abrasives, cement, spices etc.). The uniform mechanical sieving motion produces reliable and reproducible measurement results and, being independent of the power frequency, makes the sieve analysis comparable world wide. The AS 200 tap is a robust instrument which does not require maintenance. It covers a measurement range from 20 µm to 25 mm. A serial interface allows for automated evaluation with the software EasySieve®. More information at www.retsch.com.

Now also suitable for badly flowing products European Machine Trading has renewed her existing Weighcont continuous blend system with an important innovation. The machine is now also suitable for very badly flowing products, like wet sand or lime. To the weigh hoppers 2 shafts are added with a discharge and transport function. Also the hopper cone is placed under a steeper angle and a discharge gate for lumps is placed. This all to be able to accurately dose badly flowing products. This innovated Weighcont blender line is (amongst others) in use at DSM Agro in the production of fertilizer.

After being housed at the Teteringsedijk for 140 years Precia-Molen, supplier of industrial weighing equipment from 0,1 g - 100.000 kg, left the city centre of Breda. The industrial production activities from Precia-Molen and the development of the Breda town did not match any longer. Therefore we are pleased to announce that Precia-Molen , per the first of September, has continued her commercial and service activities in a new building at the business area in the “Haagse Beemden” Breda. Our new visiting address is Franse Akker 1 / Industrial Area 4262 in Breda, The Netherlands Click the link below for our full details.