ROTARY DIE SOFT GELATIN CAPSULE MACHINE:

1. Rotary die soft gelatin capsule machine is an automatic mechanical device

used in the preparation of soft gelatin capsules.
2. Before understanding the working of the machine let us first look at the
construction.
3. Construction:
4. A typical rotary die machine consists of the following parts:
5. Gelatin tank: It is a portable stainless-steel container with a triple wall
jacket connected to the back side of the machine.
6. It consists of molten gelatin, a fixed lid, a breather, steel valves and clamps.
7. The two gelatin pipes from the gelatin tank are connected to the two
spreader boxes one on either side.
8. Product tank with molten drug in another stainless-steel container is also
attached on the back side placed above the gelatin tank.
9. A pipe connects the liquified drug from the product tank to the product
container.
10.Spreader box: This is the part right above the cooling drums on either side
that spreads the molten gelatin into very thin layers called ribbons with a
thickness of 800 micrometres and a width of 150 mm.
11.Cooling drums: located below the spreader box on either side of the
machine are the cooling drums, that cools down the molten gelatin, while
getting spread by the spreader box and aids in solidifying the gelatin and
converts it into ribbon.
12.Die rollers: There are two die rollers with die pockets that determine the
shape and size of the soft gel capsule and cut the gelatin appropriately from
the two ribbons.
13.Oil rolls: There are around three oil rolls in the machine on either side of
the injection wedge that is lying between the space in the die rollers.
14.Product container: A conical container is arranged on the top of the
machine, that receives the molten drug from the product tank and supplies
to the product pump.
15.Product pump: The product pump is arranged below the conical product
container, sucks the required amount from the product container and
passes it into leads.
16.Leads: leads are the pipes that carry the product from the product pump
into the injection wedge.
17.Injection wedge: An injection wedge is arranged between the two die
rollers which is meant to inject the product liquid into the die pockets
through the holes present at the sharp end of the wedge.
18.Die roll brush: Below the die rollers are two die brushes, revolving
continuously in opposite directions helping in removing the stuck capsules
between the die rollers.
19.Chute: Capsules encapsulated are collected and transported onto the
conveyor belt through the channel called chute.
20.Conveyor belt: The conveyor belt helps in conveying the soft gelatin
capsules onto the collecting bin.
21.Control panel: A control panel with buttons to control the working of the
entire machine is on the top right corner of the machine.
22.Till now you have seen the parts and its assembling and now let me take
you into working of a rotary die machine.
23.The machine is operated through the control panel with the settings
provided in the protocol.
24.Once the machine is started, compressed air is passed into the two tanks,
so that the two gelatin pipes carry the molten gelatin liquid from the gelatin
tank to the two spreader boxes, and the single pipe carries the drug liquid
into the conical product container from the product material tank.
25.The spreader boxes and the cooling drums convert the molten gelatin into
solid continuous ribbons one on either side.
26.The left and right ribbons pass over the oil rollers where they get lubricated
and are sent to the two die rollers.
27.Simultaneously, the product pump delivers the drug liquid into the heated
wedge which sits between the die rollers.
28.The entire mechanism is framed and synchronized in a way that the cavity
prepared by the two die rollers catches the drug liquid from the wedge to
form a perfect capsule with drug content sealed inside and falls onto the
chute.
29.The two die brushes remove any capsules that failed to fall off after being
filled.
30.The discharge chute transfers the capsules onto the conveyor belt and are
collected in the collecting bin.