Pure hand-filled capsules are time-consuming and labor-intensive, so most people now use manual capsule fillers to make capsule products. For customers with large filling requirements (medical, nutrition industry), an automatic or semi-automatic capsule filling machine will be purchased to fill the capsules. However, these machines do not fully ensure that each capsule produced is intact.
The difference in loading is overrun.
Excessive difference in capsule loading is one of the problems that are prone to occur. Studies have shown that the size of the empty capsules, the characteristics of the materials, the differences in manual operations, the rotational speed of the automatic capsule filling machine, etc. all affect the stability of the load. (Specifically refer to factors affecting the difference in capsule loading) To solve this problem, it is necessary to analyze according to the actual situation. For example, the fluidity of the powder can be improved by adding suitable excipients or made into granules to make the filling accurate; the speed of the capsule machine is increased, and the filling is performed at the same time. The equipment should be repaired and maintained in time to ensure normal operation.
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Moisture absorption
Moisture absorption is a relatively common problem encountered in the preparation of capsule products. The contents tend to become soft, agglomerate, and even mildew after moisture absorption; the capsule shells become soft and deformed after moisture absorption, thereby affecting the quality and efficacy of the drug. The solution includes the following three methods: First, strictly control the ambient temperature and humidity in the production process of empty capsule storage, material processing, material filling, etc. Second, improve the preparation process (such as granulation, moisture-proof coating, etc.). Third, adapt bottle, double aluminum foil packaging or aluminum plastic packaging.
Other things to note when filling include:
- Appropriately increase the amount of powder in the ingredients to make up for the loss of some powder in the filling process (poisons, anesthetics are not included here);
- If there are drugs that are easy to absorb moisture or eutectic mixtures, add appropriate amount of diluent, and then mix and fill them;
- When filling a small amount of friable drug, add appropriate amount of ethanol or liquid paraffin and then fill it up;
- Chinese medicine extract powder should be kept dry, so add appropriate auxiliary materials and mix and then fill;
- Volatile oil should be absorbed by the absorbent and then filled.
