Watson-Marlow pump equips tablet-coating turbine at Bailly-Creat

Bailly Creat is a French pharmaceutical company specialising in the manufacture and production of dry form drugs. Known for its expertise in the shaping of dry forms and cosmetics, today Bailly Creat produces 12 million units per year and distributes to more than 30 countries. Its Vernouillet site has three packaging lines, two granulation/mixing workshops, four tablet manufacturing workshops, a capsule filling workshop and a film-coating workshop, as well as a control laboratory and a galenic development laboratory. Bailly Creat recently standardised on 530S peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions for its lamination process.

The Bailly Creat laboratory manufactures powder mixes for tablets and capsules, either by wet granulation or dry mixing processes. From these mixtures it produces tablets and capsules, utilising four rotary tablet presses and a capsule filling machine. Some of these drugs are then film-coated with a very thin film of a non-active substance, weighing a few milligrams per tablet.

Film-coating is used for several functions. Firstly, it removes residual dust from a tablet and aids packaging as the film forms a smooth casing. The film coating can also be used to colour a tablet to comply with a patent. In addition, coating a tablet allows for easier tablet absorption for the comfort of patients and the film coating can also be gastro-resistant to target dissolution of the tablet in the intestine and not in the stomach.

A safe, precise and intuitive pump

For the film-coating process, the tablets are placed in a film-coating turbine: a drum, which stirs them with hot air. Nozzles then spray the film-coating liquid in fine droplets onto the tablets. Regularity of flow is essential in this application. The performance and smooth running of bioprocesses depend on the precision and reproducibility of fluid flow, cohesion between batches and compliance with regulations, including good manufacturing practices.

530S continuous tube peristaltic pumps offer flow rates from 0.04 ml/min to 3.5 l/min and a very precise speed control ratio of 2200:1, ideal for coating applications. This high precision is supported by a user-friendly human-machine interface requiring minimal intervention, thereby reducing the risk of errors.

In this application, a single supply is divided into three separate delivery lines, each running through a high performance 313 series flip-top pumphead mounted to a single drive. This ensures smooth, accurate delivery to each of these individual supply channels.

Seamless integration for improved efficiency

The efficiency of the 530S pump's advanced peristaltic technology is enhanced by the incorporation of Watson-Marlow’s single-use tubing and BioPure components that ensure seamless interaction with the dry formulation cleanroom environment.

The Bailly Creat laboratory relies on a fleet of high-performance machines that are reviewed regularly; its teams ensure assiduous monitoring and permanent control of production. The quality system in place thus enables continuous improvement of processes, optimum product quality and total safety for patients.

This pump was implemented in 2013 as part of a validated process and has been well received ever since. According to Mr. De Colnet, Production and Maintenance Manager at Bailly Creat: “Watson-Marlow is a recognised manufacturer in our industry and the pumps are renowned for their efficiency and quality. It is for this reason that we are renewing this model in our laboratory this year.”

530S peristaltic pumps