Pharmaceutical Applications for Inflatable Seals

The Client:

A major manufacturer of pharmaceutical processing equipment.

The Situation:

In the processing of pharmaceutical materials, ingredients are often combined in a wet (slurry) staging process. The slurry then must be dried into a powder in order to produce the final product form , i.e., pills, capsules, etc.

The Application:

The size of the equipment used in a processing line will vary depending on the product produced. However, conceptually, the wet material mixture (slurry) has forced air injected into it to agitate and lift the wet mixture, breaking it into smaller particle sizes which will pass through a specific filter size on the way to a drying station. Once the material passes into the dryer, moisture is removed resulting in a powder. The powder material is then collected at the collection station and it is ready to be processed into the final product configuration. While the size of the processing equipment varies with the line and product running, the challenge remains basically the same, namely to seal off the various sections of the process/equipment stations in order to contain product in the process and prevent the pharmaceuticals from outside contamination.

The Approach:

The specific seal cross-section design utilized becomes dictates by the equipment configuration and environment. The direction of the inflation of the seal must accommodate the equipment's assembly design. When equipment stations interlock by sliding into one another, radially outward inflating seals are used. When equipment stations butt together, opposing axially inflating seals are utilized to produce a clamping action with the equipment. In the majority of applications the processing of pharmaceutical materials will require FDA compliant EPDM materials.

The Results:

Seal Master has successfully sealed several sizes and design configurations of pharmaceutical drying equipment. In general, when there is a material processing application involving possible contamination of material, there is an application for an inflatable seal. This is true of the pharmaceutical industry and other industrial process applications.