High viscosity pharmaceutical pumping solved at Aeropak10 August 2010

Aeropak (Chemical Products) in at Great Yarmouth reports success with three MasoSine sanitary pumps, mixing mainly aqueous and oil-based medicines, such as moisturising creams.

Graham Abraham, projects manager at Aeropak, says that the pumps (from Watson-Marlow Pumps Group) have helped facilitate a five-year phase of considerable increases in throughput.

"The pumps are used primarily to help re-circulate bulk product in mixing vessels through homogenisers – an essential process to ensure the quality of the products," explains Abraham.

They are also used to transfer product from the mixing vessels into bulk storage containers, and Abraham says it is the gentle, low shear product handling capabilities of the pumps that underpinned their original selection.

That is due to the sinusoidal rotor integral to both the SPS and MR series models, which gives a wave-like action. The single rotor design also means very low propulsion, and the large pumping chambers help preserve product integrity.

Abraham gives the example of high viscosity products, such as Aeropak's Doublebase emollient gel, which is a thick, shear sensitive product that requires effective mixing.

"The viscosity of products such as Doublebase is not a problem for the MasoSine pumps," he says. "They work away without any issues. Because of their simple design [one rotor, one shaft, one seal], economical in-line maintenance and cleaning is also achieved easily."

And he adds: "When we need to change product on one of the production lines, stripping the pumps, cleaning them down, testing and re-assembly are both quick and straightforward."

To improve the handling of a number of its other products, Abraham says Aeropak is currently also considering the adoption of peristaltic pump technology from Watson-Marlow.

Brian Tinham

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