title: Comparison of video analysis and simulations of a drum coating process.
abstract: Tablet coating is a common unit operation in the pharmaceutical industry. To improve currently established processes, it is important to understand the influence of the process parameters on the coating quality. One of the critical parameters is the tablet velocity. In this work, numerical results are compared to results obtained experimentally. Tablet movement in the drums was simulated using the Discrete Element Method (DEM). The simulation parameters were adapted to fit the simulation to the experimental data. A comparison of the experimental and simulation results showed that the simulation correctly represents the real tablet velocity. A change in the velocity over time and its dependence on the rotation rates and the baffle position in the simulation were similar to the experimental results. In summary, simulations can improve the understanding of tablet coating processes and will thus provide insights into the underlying process mechanics, which cannot be obtained via ordinary experiments.
authors.affiliation: Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH, Graz, Austria. Electronic address: peter.boehling@rcpe.at.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boehling
authors.affiliation: Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Toschkoff
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dreu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Just
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kleinebudde
authors.affiliation: Chemical and Pharmaceutical Development, Bayer Pharma AG, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Funke
authors.affiliation: L.B. Bohle Maschinen + Verfahren GmbH, Ennigerloh, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rehbaum
authors.affiliation: Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH, Graz, Austria; Institute for Process and Particle Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Khinast
mesh_terms: D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; D004339:Drug Compounding; D013607:Tablets
chemical_list: D013607:Tablets
keywords: DEM; Experiments; Simulation; Tablet coating