Date of performance: Date of submission: Title: Mechanism and function of each part of single die punch machine and

capsule filling machine. Theory: Tableting machines are commonly used in pharmaceutical industry. They are highspeed machines that create thousands of tablets in a small period. The compounding pharmacist uses a variation of these machines. It is called a single-punch tablet press and makes one tablet at a time. A "punch" has two pieces of casted tubular metal. The bottom metal piece has a small cavity in one end of the tube; the top metal piece has one end that is tapered into a small rod that will just fit into the small cavity in the other piece. The rod does not go all the way to the bottom of the cavity, but leaves a small gap. The punch is fitted into a press so that when the handle is depressed and released, the rod goes into and then comes out of the bottom piece. To make a tablet, the powder material is placed into the bottom piece, and the handle is depressed and released. The powders are compressed and occupy the size of the gap designed in the punch. Punches come in many sizes which allow the production of tablets of different sizes and compression strengths. Manual capsule filling machine is one of the oldest as well as the most popular and widely used form of capsule filling. The machine is designed and manufactured with utmost care to handle all sizes ranging from 00 to 5. It is widely used in research laboratories, academic institution and medium to small scale manufacturing industries. Here manually the capsules bodies and caps are separated, loaded in this machine, capsule bodies are filled with drug powder and then closed together with the caps, and finally the finished products are ejected.

Single Die Punch Machine:

Figure: Single-punch machine. Function of each part: 1. Hopper for holding and feeding granules or powder to be compressed. 2. Dies that define the size and shape of the tablet. 3. Punches for compressing the granules within the dies. 4. Cam tracks for guiding the movement of the punches. 5. A feeding mechanism for moving granules from the hopper into the dies.

Stages of Tablet Formation: Die filling: Gravitational flow of the powder from hopper via the die table into the die. (The die is closed at its lower end by the lower punch). Tablet formation: The upper punch descends, enters the die, the powder is compressed until a tablet is formed. After maximum applied force is reached, the upper punch leaves the powder. Tablet ejection: The lower punch rises until its tip reaches the level of the top of the die. The tablet is subsequently removed or ejected from the die and die table by a pushing device.

Figure: Illustrating the principle of compression in a single-punch machine. Production Capacity: 1500~5000pcs/h Tablet shape: round and other irregular sizes Tablet size: 5mm~20mm

Capsule Filling Machine:

Figure: Capsule Filling Machine Function of each part: 1. Bottom sheet: The bottom or the bodies of capsules are inserted here to fill them with drug powder. 2. Tamper: If the bottoms were not filled enough, then tamping tool can be used to compress the fillings 3. Middle sheet: This aids in the final encapsulation of the capsules. 4. Cap sheet: Here the cap of capsules are inserted 5. Encapsulation sheet: This aids in the insertion of capsule body in the bottom sheet and the capsule cap in the cap sheet. 6. Powder keeper: Specially made to keep all powders aboard 7. Spreader: Used to spread the powder in the bottom sheet containing the capsule body.

Stages of capsule filling: 1. The cap sheet was taken and the encapsulation sheet was placed on top of it. 2. The capsule tops were poured into the encapsulation sheet and, using a circular motion, gently the tops into the holes was shaken. When the holes were filled the excess tops were poured out. 3. The encapsulation sheet and the filled cap sheet were removed to one side. 4. The bottom sheet was taken. The encapsulation sheet was fixed to the bottom sheet, using the black pegs to fix it correctly in place. 5. Bottoms were poured into the encapsulation sheet and were shaken as before to fill the holes. The filled encapsulation sheet was removed and was put it carefully to one side. 6. A scoop of powder filler was poured onto the bottom sheet and the spreader was used to fill the bottoms. If the bottoms were not filled enough, then tamping tool can be used to compress the fillings and repeat the previous procedure. 7. Then the filled cap sheet was taken and the middle sheet was placed on top using the black pegs protruding upwards to fit it correctly in place. 8. The cap sheet / middle sheet was turned over and fixed to the bottom sheet. 9. Now, both hands were placed on the top and were pushed downwards with equal pressure. Thus the capsules were locked.

Punch machine used by Bangladesh pharmaceutical company:

Square Pharmaceutical LTD uses- 1) single rotary tablet press 2) square rotary tablet press and 3) GMP model tablet press