Section IV—MIXING OF SEMISOLIDS £ Equipment Scmisolid dosage forms include’ ointments, pastes, creams, jellies etc. While mixing such dosage forms, the material must be! brought to. the agitator or the agitator must move the material throughout the mixer. The mixing action includes -combination of low speed:shear,- ‘smearing, wiping, folding,.stretching. and compressing. A large amount of me- chanical energy is applied to the material by moving parts. Sometimes, a part of the supplied energy appears as heat. The forces required for efficient mixing are high and consumption of power is also high. Hence, the equipment must be ruggedly constructed to tolerate these forces, Mixing equipment are also used for preparing tooth-pastes, pill masses and wet mass for ‘granulation, Some semisolids exhibit dilatant property, i.e., viscosity increases with increase in shear rates. Therefore, mixing must be done at lower speeds. The speed must.be changed accordingly to thixotropic, plastic and Peaidaplaste materials. + 3 : EQUIPMENT’ fassification of Equipment ° ft ) Agitator mixers : Examples are sigma mixer and planetary mixer. c a mixers : Examples are triple roller mill and colloidal mill. igma blade mixer and planetary mixer are discussed, in the solid- solid mixing. Colloidal mill is discussed in thé Chapter ‘Size Reduction’, Triple roller mill is discussed here.& 2467 PHARMACEUTICAL ENGINEERING election of Mixing Equipment, for Semisolids dy Physical properties of the materials - density, viscosity and miscibility. Economic considerations regarding processing - time required * {gemixing and power consumption. The cost of equipment and its maintenance. Yoon ROLLER MILL Principle : The differential speed and the narrow space between the, rollers develop high shear over the material, This shear causes crushing of aggregates, particles and also distributes the drug uniformly. through owt the semisolid base. 7 Construction ; The construction of a triple roller mill is showa in Figure 8-27, It consists of three parallel: rollers of equal diameters. These are made up of hard abrasion resistant material, normally stainless steel. ‘The rollers are mounted in a rigid framework horizontahy. The pressure and. gap between the rollers are independently adjustable. “A hopper is arranged between the firstitwo rollers. A scrapper is attached to the last roller. tow Medium * High Ae speed speed speed eceiver > Figure 8-27. Construction of triple roller mill. .~ Awithive : The gap between the last two rollers is adjusted to be less than the gap between the first two rollers. The rollers are rotated at different speeds. In practice, the first roller (receiving-roller) rotates at a slower speed compared to the second roller. Similarly second roller speed is less than that of third roller (discharge roller). The feed is passed through the gap between the first and second rollers, The aggregates and particles are crushed and ther abraded by the rubbing action of the rollers, which is developed due to different specds of rotation. A film of appreciable thickness of the feed is produced. The material passes from slow rotating to fast rotating roller.Ch-8 MIXING 247 Between second and third roller, the gap is small and produces a thinner film of feed. The speed of the third roller is increased to compensate the reduction af cross sectional area. In the thinning film, more crushing and more abrasion are developed. ” Finally the serapper removes the material completely from the last roller which can be collected immediately into the receiver or trans- ported through a suitable conveyor. ‘Adlvastned 2 Triple roller mill is’ suitable for continuous processes. Extremely uniform dispersion is obtained