System for Producing Pharmaceutical Tablets

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for producing pharmaceutical tablets, in which method pressed tablet articles are formed and given a coating, wherein the pressed tablet articles are, before they are given a coating, stored in an intermediate storage area (10) for a product-specific hardening period and are then automatically removed from the intermediate storage area (10) for further processing, wherein a system control unit (17), in which the product-specific hardening periods can be or are stored, detects the time at which the pressed tablet articles are placed into the intermediate storage area (10) and once the product-specific hardening period has come to an end, initiates the automatic removal of the pressed tablet articles. The invention further relates to a system for producing pharmaceutical tablets, having at least one tablet press (2) and at least one coater (14), which is arranged downstream of the tablet press (2) and which gives the pressed tablet articles formed in the tablet press (2) a coating, wherein the system has containers (8), which are configured to receive the pressed tablet articles ejected from the tablet press (2), the system comprises an intermediate storage area (10) having at least two storage spaces (11), the system has a handling system (9) that brings the containers (8) to the intermediate storage area (10) and removes them therefrom, and the system comprises a system control unit that controls the handling system (9), wherein in the system control unit (17), product-specific hardening periods can be or are stored and the system control unit (17) detects the content of a container (8), the storage space (11) assigned to a container (8) in the intermediate storage area (10), and the start of the hardening period and, once the hardening period has come to an end, actuates the handling system (9) to remove the corresponding container (8) from the intermediate storage area (10) and to transport it for further processing.

Claims

1. Method for producing pharmaceutical tablets in which compressed tablets are compressed and provided with a coating, characterized in that the compressed tablets, before they are provided with the coating, are stored for a product-specific hardening period in an intermediate storage area (10) and, subsequently, are automatically removed from the intermediate storage area (10) for further processing, wherein a system control unit (17) in which the product-specific hardening periods can be stored or are stored, records the point in time of introducing the compressed tablets into the intermediate storage area (10) and, at the end of the product-specific hardening period, initiates the automatic removal of the compressed tablets.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that compressed tablets with identical hardening period are moved into one container (8) and the container (8) is transferred by a handling system (9) into the intermediate storage area (10).

3. Method according to claim 2, characterized in that the container can be transferred to one of at least two storage spaces (11) in the intermediate storage area (10), wherein the system control unit records the container contents and the storage space (11) in the intermediate storage area (10), and the container (8), at the end of the stored product-specific hardening period, is automatically removed by the handling system (9), controlled by the system control unit (17), from the storage space (8) in the intermediate storage area (10).

4. Method according to claim 2, characterized in that the container (8) removed from the intermediate storage area (10) is docked to an inlet opening (12) of a coater (14) and the compressed tablets are emptied from the container (8) into the coater (14).

5. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that in the intermediate storage area (10) simultaneously compressed tablets with different hardening periods are stored.

6. Method according to claim 5, characterized in that the different compressed tablets remain within the intermediate storage area (10) for hardening periods of different lengths.

7. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the production of the compressed tablets is realized continuously at least in parts.

8. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that dust is removed from the compressed tablets.

9. System for producing pharmaceutical tablets, with at least one tablet press (2), with at least one coater (14) arranged downstream of the tablet press (2) and providing the compressed tablets formed in the tablet press (2) with a coating, for performing the method according to claim 1, characterized in that the system comprises containers (8) which are configured for receiving compressed tablets discharged from the tablet press (2), the system comprises an intermediate storage area (10) with at least two storage spaces (11), the system comprises a handling system (9) transferring a container (8) into the intermediate storage area (10) and removing it from the intermediate storage area (10), and the system comprises a system control unit (17) controlling the handling system (9), wherein in the system control unit (17) product-specific hardening periods can be stored or are stored, and the system control unit (17) detects the contents of a container (8), the storage space (11) assigned to a container (8) in the intermediate storage area (10), as well as the start of the hardening period, and, at the end of the hardening period, controls the handling system (9) for removal of the corresponding container (8) from the intermediate storage area (10) and supply to further processing.

10. System according to claim 9, characterized in that it comprises a detection unit which determines the quantity of the compressed tablets contained in a container (8) based on the number of pieces and/or based on weight.

11. System according to claim 9, characterized in that a deflector (5) is arranged downstream of the tablet press (2) which guides the compressed tablets discharged from the tablet press (2) selectively to one of at least two filling stations (7), wherein the filling stations (7) can be provided with a container (8).

12. System according to claim 9, characterized in that the containers (8) comprise an inlet opening (12) that is selectively openable or closable automatically in a dust-tight way.

13. System according to claim 9, characterized in that the coater (14) comprises an inlet opening (12) that is selectively openable or closable automatically in a dust-tight way.

14. System according to claim 9, characterized in that the system comprises a dust removal device (4) for removing dust from the compressed tablets.

15. System according to claim 14, characterized in that the dust removal device (4) is arranged between the tablet press (2) and the deflector (5).

Description

[0026] One embodiment of the innovation will be explained in the following in more detail with the aid of the purely schematic illustrations. It is shown in:

[0027] FIG. 1 a plan view of a system for producing pharmaceutical tablets, and

[0028] FIG. 2 a side view of the system of FIG. 1.

[0029] In the drawings, the system that is serving for producing pharmaceutical tablets is referenced as a whole by 1. The compressed tablets pass from a tablet press 2 through an outlet conduit 3 to a dust removal device 4. After the compressed articles have been freed from dust in this dust removal device 4, they reach a deflector 5 which guides the flow of compressed tablets selectively to one of two discharge channels 6. Each one of these two discharge channels 6 leads to a filling station 7 wherein in FIG. 1 it is illustrated that at each one of the two filling stations 7 one container 8 is arranged, respectively, and connected to one of the two discharge channels 6, respectively. In this way, one of the two containers 8 is filled at one filling station 7 with tablets while the second container 8 at the second filling station 7 remains empty and is instead in a standby position.

[0030] After a container 8 has been filled at filling station 7 and the deflector 5 redirects the following tablet flow into the other container 8 at the other filling station 7, the filled container 8 can be engaged by a handling system 9 and moved to an intermediate storage area 10. In the illustrated embodiment, in particular with the aid of FIG. 2 it can be seen that the intermediate storage area 10 has four storage spaces 11 wherein the two lower storage spaces 11 are filled with a container 8, respectively, while of the two upper storage spaces 11 only the one illustrated to the right is filled with a container 8 while the storage space 11 to the left is empty. Namely, the handling system 9 has engaged the container 8 that has been located at this storage space 11 initially and, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, has moved this filled container 8 to an inlet opening 12 of the coater 14. Compressed tablets which are contained in the container 8 and have hardened during the storage duration in the intermediate storage area 10 can accordingly be filled from the container 8 into the coater 14. During this flow phase, the handling system 9 can move a filled container 8 from the filling station 7 to the free storage space 11 and, subsequently, after the hardened compressed tablets from the container 8 have flowed into the coater 14, the handling system can engage the now empty container 8 and move it to the now unoccupied filling station 7 while in the meantime the other empty container 8, initially in the standby position, is filled at the second filling station 7 with the compressed tablets coming from the dust removal device 4.

[0031] The tablets which have been coated in the coater 14 pass through a filling conduit 15 into a transport container 16 wherein the filling conduit 15 is connected dust-tightly to the coater 14 and to the transport container 16 so that, as a whole, from the tablet press 2 to the transport container 16, a closed dust-tight handling of the product in the system 1 is ensured.

[0032] The system 1 comprises a schematically indicated system control unit 17 which controls and synchronizes the individual actions of the system 1. For example, at the exit of the tablet press 2 or of the dust removal device 4, a detection device is provided which, either by means of the weight and or by means of detecting the number of pieces of the individual compressed tablets, determines the tablet quantity which is discharged by discharge channel 6 into a container 8 located at the filling station 7. As a function of the signals of these detection devices, the system control unit 17 controls the deflector 5 in order to redirect the tablet flow selectively to one of the two discharge channels 6. Furthermore, the system control unit 17 controls the handling system 9 in order to effect handling of the individual containers 8 between a filling station 7, a storage space 11, and the coater 14 as well as from the coater 14 to the filling station 7 as well as have the handling system 9 actuate closure members at the dust-tight locks which are provided at the inlet openings and/or outlet openings of the individual devices of the system 1.