Knowledge Base

Spheronizing with the S380

The Caleva Spheronizer 380 is capable of processing batch sizes from 250g to 5kg (wet weight) of product to create an hourly output of approximately 50kg.

The S380 works with a large range of materials, including pharmaceutical materials, catalysts and agricultural products.

The Spheronizer

The spheronizer disc used in this example is the Caleva 3mm x 3mm cross hatch pattern which comes as...

Mixing trials with a Caleva Mixer Granulator and difficult materials

Two different products were tested to help a customer who was finding some difficulty in obtaining homogeneous mixes of small volumes. These materials were considered difficult to mix to a homogeneous state in the batch sizes required.

PRODUCT 1, TRIAL 1

A mix of sugar and salt in the ratio of 2:1
A batch of 100 grams of household sugar was weighed and added to the mixing bowl, together with a...

How do I Decide Which Laboratory Extruder and Spheronizer I Need?

We are often asked for advice by researchers and teachers who want to acquire laboratory equipment for wet granulation formulation development using the extrusion and spheronization process. However, we typically find that all our equipment users have different requirements. Caleva offer a range of different solutions for extrusion and spheronization in your lab or teaching space. Each solution...

How to produce consistent formulations from different mixers

Customer Quote: Mr. K.S (Aurobindo)

"It is exciting to see the correlation between the two graphs and granulation end point". 

With a major pharmaceutical manufacturer, together we characterised all their various mixers to produce a consistent formulation.

To identify three important characteristics for wet mass materials, namely:

  • The Optimum moisture point
  • The mixing time required to reach the...

Mixing and granulating small batches

The Caleva Multi-Lab (CML) is capable of performing 3 different processes: Mixing, Extrusion and Spheronization.

This article is about the mixing and granulation phase of the process.

The multi-lab works with a large range of materials from pharmaceutical materials and catalysts, to agricultural products.

The granulator/mixer

The mixer attachment blades thoroughly mix the liquid binder with the...

Mix, Extrude & Spheronize in a single base - watch a video

Call Caleva's friendly team to talk about this unique solution for your applications, whatever your challenges are.

The Caleva Multi-Lab (CML) is often considered to be the flagship of Caleva lab equipment.

Being able to perform 3 different processes rapidly in one machine with a footprint just slightly larger than an A3 piece of paper, makes the CML a welcome addition to any lab space that...

How do I coat tablets or pellets with the Caleva Mini Coater Drier

The Mini Coater Drier (MCD) is an incredibly useful piece of equipment when it comes to coating and drying small batches of tablets or pellets. For a demonstration of the MCD in use, you can watch the video on this page, or for some quick pieces of information on the MCD, check the bullet points below.

  • From a single tablet up to about 150 tablets
  • From a few grams to about 60 grams of small...

The very small footprint Caleva Multi Lab

The small size of the CML is just one of the many advantages that this piece of equipment can offer. Having the ability to complete 3 processes in one machine, whilst also taking up a minimal amount of bench top space, makes the CML a great addition to any lab space that works with the processes of mixing/granulation, extrusion and spheronization.

Do excipients purchased from different vendors behave in the same way?

The Mixer Torque Rheometer can be used to assess the behaviour of excipients purchased from different suppliers.

Background

Excipients from different batches or vendors may be variable in quality and it is often necessary to perform pre-formulation assessment for each batch of excipient received. In some cases, excipients from different vendors require comparative assessment of their equivalent...

The Caleva Family of Laboratory Equipment

Whilst you may have heard of Caleva and any one of its flagship pieces of equipment, we'd like to introduce you to the family of Caleva laboratory equipment that you may find helpful for your application in your industry sector. Choose one process or choose all of them. Select further functions as you need them. This adaptable and future proof suite of equipment will allow you to obtain proof of...

Is there a correctly sized extruder die to get the size of pellets you need?

There is no simple answer to this question as it depends on the characteristics of your formulation and the size of the pellets you require.

Can power use in granulation predict tablet dissolution & hardness?

The recent research paper from Tomoto Otsuka et al (Chem. Pharm. Bull. 66, 554-561 2018) have shown that high shear granulation processes can influence final product properties such as tablet dissolution and hardness.The question raised by this paper was related to useful methods of evaluating the “kneading state” of a wet mass obtained during the granulation process. The most commonly used...

Inconsistent spheronization results with difficult active ingredient?

The following case study demonstrates how the Caleva Mixer Torque Rheometer.  The MTR-3 was an invaluable aid in a specific case. A manufacturer of generic Venlafaxine pellets was experiencing inconsistent results from their manufacturing line. The resultant product was variable in both usable yield (weight of acceptable pellets as a % of weight of granulation made), and dissolution profile. The...

Mixer Torque Rheometer used with Food Powders

Research Article University of Padova where their Caleva Rheometer was used

Caleva training seeks both successful and unsuccessful results - why?

Installation and training is generally specifically designed so that the operators and users can learn how to use the equipment and quickly learn through a series of procedures to produce acceptable results. However, our experience after several years of working with operators and researchers during installation and training, tells us that users learn more about the equipment and the technology...

The Importance of End Point Detection Consistency

This world is not only for us. Can you imagine world had no animals, what would it be like? Would the trees be green? Without birds or squirrels, less trees would grow. There would be no pets, no flowers and no bees. If even one part of our ecosystem is removed, we will all die. Without animals, we will surely go extinct.

Coating of very small capsules with the Caleva Mini Coater Drier

The Caleva small tablet and pellet coater is well known for the coating and drying of very small batches of pellets and tablets. It is the only commercially available equipment for this task. The Mini Coater Drier will coat from a single tablet or a few grams of pharmaceutical (or related) pellets. The process was originally developed for pharmaceutical pellet applications, but is also suitable...

Caleva Multi Lab & Bone Regeneration study Medical University Gdańsk

Drug-loaded mesoporous silica/calcium phosphate composites for bone regeneration

Adrian Szewczyk at Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Gdańsk has kindly allowed us to introduce this paper that introduces a study of Drug-loaded mesoporous silica/calcium phosphate composites for bone regeneration.  

Latest Research Paper from University of Karachi

Thanks to Caleva not only for making great equipment but also for being helpful to give us access to it within our budget. I would ALSO like to thank Caleva for the help given in providing the small scale extrusion and spheronization equipment for our laboratory. The latest research paper from our pharmaceutical department (Lipids bearing extruded-spheronized pellets for extended release of...

Mini Coater Dryer (air suspension coater) used in formulation development

Tablets were coated with a color overcoat (Aquarius Cool Vanilla BI-1800,Ashland/Aqualon; hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, titanium dioxide, triacetin, polysorbate)using a Caleva air-suspension coater to 2-4% by weight …