6/4/24, 5:34 PM Cleaning Pharmaceutical Equipment

Those Challenging Vertical Surfaces of Fluid Bed Coaters

How to Clean
Pharmaceutical Equipment
Download your free Guide to Cleaning Pharmaceutical Equipment to
find the optimal cleaning procedure for your manufacturing process.

CLEANING PHARMA EQUIPMENT IS NOT JUST ONE-STEP IN THE PROCESS

Equipment cleaning is often thought to be one step in the production process, however upon
taking a closer look, it is an entire process to be developed and optimized on its own to maintain
product quality and production output. There are many variables that impact equipment
cleaning procedures for fluidized bed coaters, coating pans, and various blending equipment.
This guide sheds light on cleaning procedure challenges for this equipment and how to address
them.

PRODUCTION IS LIKE A BEATING HEART

So, who is this Guide for?

Manufacturing and Production is the beating heart of any

pharmaceutical company. These critical teams are responsible for
meeting often demanding market needs and adhering to strict
regulations, all without compromising productivity and product
quality. These tasks can often be demanding and overtly
complicated to maintain, and the threat of an extended shutdown
could mean loss of significant generated revenue. Having an
incorrect cleaning procedure for any piece of pharmaceutical

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equipment can often be a root cause of these expensive shutdowns, specifically when it comes
to the cleaning processes
Thoseput into placeVertical
Challenging for thisSurfaces
equipment.
of Fluid Bed Coaters

Download Guide Now

CLEANING PROCEDURES ARE NOT CREATED EQUALLY

Every pharmaceutical cleaning procedure is unique and should be created based on the unique
residues created and your cleaning capabilities. Without consideration of these variables:

 Incorrect cleaning procedures can cause manufacturing challenges - such as

unnecessary use of excess resources.
 Optimal Cleaning is not taken into consideration during product development.
 Understanding capabilities of your equipment is the most important thing before
cleaning.
 Different types of equipment pose unique challenges- you can't always expect one
thing to work for everything.

THOSE CHALLENGING VERTICAL SURFACES OF FLUID BED COATERS

Fluid bed coaters can be very large pieces of equipment that create their product by using a
vertical spray coating and drying process. The cleaning process of a fluid bed dryer is largely
determined by size of vessel, the residue needed to be cleaned, and the limitations of cleaning
equipment. Because of the vertical surfaces, the most common challenge for a fluid bed is
getting the detergent solution to stick to the vertical walls and/or to maintain contact of solution
to walls. This can create the need for manual cleaning action. CIP cleaning, if available, should
be considered as the consistent spray can help keep the vertical surfaces coated with detergent
solution. Additional cleaning variables that should be looked at when developing this cleaning
process are:

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Those Challenging Vertical Surfaces of Fluid Bed Coaters

Facing an equipment cleaning challenge of your own?

Download this technical cleaning guide and discover how to address any
challenge.

TABLET COATERS AND THEIR TOUGH COATINGS

Whether it's thick pooling of coatings or long dirty hold times in

b e t w e e n b a t c h e s . . . I f t h e s e p r o b l e m s s o u n d f a m i l i a r, y o u a r e n o t
alone.
Developing a cleaning process for a tablet coater, or coating pan, can be simpler than a fluid
bed because of the smaller size and the ability to implement clean-in-place for additional action.
The standard cleaning process for tablet coaters is to fill the tray with the detergent solution,
soak and rotate the perforated pan.

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However, often the coatings being used in the

process
Those Challenging Vertical canofbeFluid
Surfaces veryBed
difficult to clean. A classic
Coaters
example of this is the cleaning of pigmented HPMC
based coatings. Where the HPMC is itself not
difficult to clean, the water or alkaline detergents
strip off the polymer, leaving behind the pigment
(usually iron oxides or titanium dioxides). This
results in coloration or haze formation which is
tough to clean and often time tough to see on the
surfaces of the tablet coater because of the dark
tank. An LED light may need to be used to see this
haze and often requires strong corrosive acids and manual cleaning to physically scrub it off the
surface of the equipment, which is not desired.

Selecting the optimal detergent for your tablet coating soil that readily removes the entire
formulation in a single detergent step is often the solution for cleaning the coater pan. The
detergent solution can prevent the pigment from bonding to the equipment surface and
eliminating the need to re-clean.

What should you look for in an ideal detergent? Read here.

LIMITED CLEANING OPTIONS FOR BLENDING EQUIPMENT

From ribbon blenders to V- blenders, these critical pieces of

equipment also have unique cleaning challenges. Most of them
center around the limitations of automated cleaning. The most
common cleaning process for these pieces of equipment are to
fill the mixing vessel with detergent solution, soak and agitate the
vessel for a previously determined amount of time. Parts that can
be removed, like mesh screens and blades, are often cleaned via
a clean out of place procedure such as manually scrubbing. This
manual action is best avoided in a GMP cleaning process as it is
operator dependent and inconsistent. Also, due to safety and
ergonomic issues, manual cleaning action must be minimized or
eliminated in cleaning of production scale equipment.

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4 REASONS CLEANING KNOWLEDGE IS ESSENTIAL

Those Challenging Vertical Surfaces of Fluid Bed Coaters

The main reasons that knowledge of cleaning is essential to any manufacturing company:

1. To ensure operator, environmental and equipment safety

2. Downtime reduction

3. Maximum equipment utilization (equipment longevity)

4. Savings – Resource and labor costs

Elaborating on these points, we can conclude that considering all cleaning variables above
before moving cleaning to full-scale production, helps in identifying your optimal cleaning
process that satisfy profit requirements of a company. This ensures that your cleaning is
consistent, robust and repeatable and creates minimal resource usage and downtime while
maximizing your equipment utilization.

A COMPLETE SOLUTION FOR YOUR PRODUCTION

You are not alone when facing your cleaning challenges. Dober’s Chematic Cleaning
Chemistries and custom cleaning evaluations reduce your cleaning time and eliminate the need
to re-clean equipment. We pride ourselves on thinking differently about cleaning. We believe
that every production facility is unique and so are the residues they create. This is the reason
we develop cleaning detergents that are formulated for you and not "off-the-shelf" solutions.

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DOWNLOAD THE FULL COPY TODAY.

Begin building better business efficiencies with a new understanding of the equipment cleaning
process.

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