The purpose of the experiment was to evaluate and compare the performances of different spray guns in various coating processes in a Freund-Vector VHC-5811 55 liter fully perforated coating pan. The two spray guns that were studied in the experiment were the Freund-Vector’s AT manifold spray gun and the Schlick Anti Bearding spray gun.   Batch sizes of 40 kilograms were coated with a goal of reaching an overall 5 percent weight gain @ 250 mL per Minute/Gun.

Coating Process Solution #1 – Opadry II Blue

Each of the spray guns were capable of coating tablets with acceptable quality at standard settings and modest spray rates.  To differentiate between spray guns and combinations aggressive spray rates were used for the tests.   With higher solids commercial coating materials,  such as PVA based coatings 5% weight gain at 250 mL per minute/gun, only took 54 minutes.

Coating Process Solution #1 – HPMC E5

Hypromellose coatings at 8.8% solids was also successful.  Using the two best performing combinations, the gun to bed distance was increased to 12” (30.5 cm) and both spray guns could sustain 250 g/min with a 5% weight gain taking 102.6-minutes. To differentiate between spray guns and combinations aggressive spray rates were used for the tests.

The goal of reaching an overall 5 percent weight gain @ 250 mL per Minute/Gun was a success.  Each of the spray guns were capable of coating tablets with acceptable quality at standard settings and modest spray rates.  To learn more about this experiment, please send a request to sales@freund-vector.com