PRESS RELEASE 15 September 2009

Customised SADE SP tablet and capsule weight sorters

CI Electronics has an enviable reputation for the performance, quality and ease of use of its standard tablet and capsule weight sorters for the pharmaceutical industry. However, the company also possesses the necessary expertise in weight sorting and pharmaceutical production equipment to develop customised units to suit particular requirements. Two recent examples have both involved receiving product from IBCs (intermediate bulk containers) and depositing the weight-sorted good product into a second IBC.

The customised unit was based on a SADE SP200. Modifications to the standard design included a raised stand so that extended outfeed tubes could deliver product to a single IBC at floor level and repositioning of the controller so that the weigh units could be situated more closely together. A special hopper divided the output from the infeed IBC equally between the two weigh units.

While CI Electronics concentrated on developing the weight sorter, the customer provided a lifter to raise the infeed IBC above the hopper, together with a means of operating the valve at the bottom of the IBC. To prevent the weight sorter's hopper from overflowing when the IBC valve was opened, a self-regulating feed tube was devised to fit the IBC valve. This feed tube is a flexible, disposable component that extends into the weight sorter's hopper. As the level in the hopper rises up the outside of the tube, gentle back-pressure is created inside the tube to breach the inflow of tablets.

The end result was a weight sorter that provides the exact function required by the customer; tablets come off the production line in IBCs and, on those occasions when weight sorting is required, the IBCs can be lifted above the weight sorter and the system left unattended to sort the entire contents of the IBC. There is no need for manual lifting or manual filling of the hopper, and the good product from the weight sorter is delivered to the packaging department in an IBC as if it had come directly from the production line.

By the time a second customer expressed an interest in a weight sorter to handle IBCs, CI Electronics had launched the SADE SP220 high-speed tablet and capsule weight sorter, which operates 50 per cent faster than the SP200. By developing a customised weight sorter around the SP220, CI Electronics was able to achieve the specified sort rate of 9,000 capsules per hour.

Similar in many respects to the first project, the second customised weight sorter featured a bespoke stand and a twinned hopper with a single entry point, together with extended outfeed tubes serving a single IBC.

Both of these customised weight sorters run for long periods without any operator intervention. In common with the standard CI Electronics weight sorters, an alarm is raised in the event of the sorter becoming blocked, jammed or running empty. Furthermore, the accuracy for the customised units remains an excellent +/-1mg, the sorting mechanisms handle a wide variety of shapes and sizes of tablets and capsules, and the data can be exported for storage and analysis on a PC.

The design engineers at CI Electronics are fully conversant with GMP, hence the customised weight sorters meet all the necessary requirements in terms of materials of construction, mechanical design, and ease of dismantling and cleaning. While the two examples described above show how weight sorters can be customised to operate with IBCs, CI Electronics can modify virtually any aspect of its standard products to suit specific production requirements or operating environments. Customised units can typically be delivered to anywhere in the world within 12-14 weeks of the initial enquiry being made.

For more information about the CI Electronics SADE tablet and capsule weight sorters, or to discuss any requirement for customised units, please telephone +44 (0) 1722 424100, faxing +44 (0)1722 323222 or e-mail sales@cielec.com