Influence of the Selected Sieving Parameters on the Sieving Efficiency of Material MCC Avicel PH102
Sieving or screening plays a crucial role in the processing of particulate materials. The sieving process is affected by many factors, including the selection of suitable sieving equipment. Several experiments were carried out to examine the influence of three basic sieving parameters on process efficiency. The investigated material was MCC Avicel PH102, which is widely used as an excipient in the pharmaceutical industry. The three mentioned parameters were sample mass, sieving duration, and vibration amplitude. It was necessary to find a suitable method to evaluate screening efficiency.
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About this article: Jezsó, Kristian and Peciar, Peter. “Influence of the Selected Sieving Parameters on the Sieving Efficiency of Material MCC Avicel PH102” Strojnícky časopis – Journal of Mechanical Engineering, vol.72, no.1, 2022, pp.77-88. https://doi.org/10.2478/scjme-2022-0008
MANUFACTURERS OF MICROCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE
Conclusions
During the measurements, 3 parameters were varied: the mass of the input material, the amplitude of the vibrations, and the duration of the tests. Amplitude has the greatest impact on efficiency, followed by the duration of the process, while the mass of the raw material has the least effect. With regard to mass, it should be noted that a good range has been chosen. This means that for small input material volumes, the blinding of the apertures does not play such a large role. In cases of larger volumes or continuous process, blinding can already significantly reduce the effective sieve area. Characterising a three-dimensional particle with one dimension can only be done with sufficient accuracy for spherical particles. In any other case, it is more or less an idealization. This was the case in this study, because Avicel particles differ from this ideal state (see Fig. 1b)) and thus some fiction is involved in the measurements. The particles were characterized by using laser analysis, which works with volume equivalent diameter. This implies that when the characteristic dimension of a particle is 58,9 μm it does not necessarily follow that it will pass through a sieve with a 63 μm aperture, and on the other hand, a 66,9 μm diameter does not necessarily mean that it will not pass through a sieve with a 63 μm aperture size. Furthermore, for such small particles, the electrostatic and Van der Waals forces acting between the particles also play an important role. These forces may be so strong that they do not break down due to vibrations, and therefore a particle that should fall through will not fall through the aperture.
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