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In the pharmaceutical industry, the current trend is to move from conventional batch manufacturing to Continuous Manufacturing processes. The challenges for this shift are many: quality control of the blend (homogeneity), inter- and intra-lot variability, suitability of excipients (flow, density, compactability), build-up of electrostatic charges.

The 3rd APV Continuous Manufacturing Conference in Rome (organized by Janssen Pharmaceutical) was the perfect stage to discuss these critical points with renowned representatives of the Pharma sector.

With Granutools we did not miss this opportunity to present our powder characterization workflow to the researchers, engineers and users participating in Rome, offering them different solutions to understand and control their process.

One of the major issues in powder processability for Continuous Manufacturing is the presence of electrostatic charges, which are known to drastically influence the material flow properties. The charge build-up is produced by the friction between the grains and the friction between the grains and the conveying material surfaces. In a continuous manufacturing line, those charges may not have time to dissipate fast enough since the process is per-se continuous. Therefore, the triboelectrification causes complications and affects the quality of the final products (powder sticking on pipes surface, agglomeration).

To help industries to quantify this phenomenon, Granutools developed the GranuCharge. This unique instrument measures automatically and precisely the amount of electrostatic charges created inside a powder during a flow in contact with a selected material. All Granutools instruments are designed to be a close proxy of industrial processes and to help predicting the flowability and processability of powders. The GranuCharge measures the tribocharging behaviour of a powder, which can predict its processability in a continuous manufacturing line.

Do you want to learn more about triboelectrification in Continuous Manufacturing? Do you want to know how we can help you tackling electrostatic issues? You want to join other key players of the Pharma industry and gain knowledge in powder characterization? Granutools brings scientific solutions to your problems using powder flow characterization tools.

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