What factors will affect the granulation products of wet mixing granulators?

With the increasing demand for pharmaceutical processes in the pharmaceutical industry, wet granulation technology also needs to keep up with the times. Only more energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and safe granulation methods can be applied in the market. Researchers have found that the combination of dynamic and static drying methods, namely the two-step drying method, applied to the drying process of wet granulation can shorten the drying cycle of the produced wet granules and improve production efficiency.

It is understood that the particles made by wet mixing granulation have irregular shapes, uniform particle size distribution, and a more complete structure than other traditional granulation processes, but their granulation products are also affected by many factors.   

Firstly, the rotational speed of the stirring blade and cutting knife. According to the industry, the size and distribution of particle size are directly related to the speed of the stirring blade and cutting blade. When the cutting blade speed is slow, the particle size increases, while when the speed is fast, the particle size decreases; When the speed of the stirring blade is slow, the particle size is small, while as the speed increases, the particle size becomes larger. The two have opposite effects.   

Secondly, the influence of mixing and granulation procedures and time is due to the rotation of the stirring blade during the operation of the high-speed mixing and granulation machine, which causes the materials in the pot to roll towards the space, thereby causing the bottom materials to rotate and throw up along the pot wall. This action successively pushes the soft materials towards the fast cutting knife and is cut into particles of different sizes, which gradually become spherical as they roll over each other for a period of time. It can be seen from this that the speed and time of the stirring blade and cutting knife have an impact on the particle size of granulation.   

Thirdly, the impact of materials and concentration. In wet mixed granulation production, alcohol granulation or dextrin adhesive granulation are commonly used, and there are certain differences between these two granulation methods. The common method is to use alcohol for granulation. Due to the lack of viscosity and the loosening effect of alcohol, this method is ideal for granulation of high viscosity traditional Chinese medicine. If cyclodextrin is used for granulation, due to its viscosity and polymerization effect, the resulting particles are large and coarse, and dry slowly. This method is ideal for Western medicine without viscosity.   

In addition, whether using concentrated extract diluted as a material or using dextrin or other adhesives, the slurry concentration of the material can be slightly diluted when producing smaller particles, and slightly concentrated when larger particles are required.