NEW YORK - Martin Braun (pictured, left), executive VP for operations at Schwabe Pharmaceuticals, is a believer in square bin blenders. Schwabe operations in Germany use the square format, and now Braun is bringing the technology to the pharma and nutraceutical operations of Nature's Way, a Schwabe brand. Braun spoke at the LB Bohle booth at Interphex last week, describing how he selected and plans to use the PM series square blender unveiled by Bohle at the show.
The square format, according to Bohle VP Martin Hack (pictured, right), is more common than round for pharma ingredient handling. The PM series provides homogeneous blending of dry powder batches via blending elements mounted inside the container lid. Capacity scales to 2,600 liters, and loads to 2,500 kilograms, in three models.
Braun of Schwabe says that nutraceutical products can be more difficult to manufacture than drug products. Some nutraceuticals contains hundreds of ingredients. They have a lower cost structure, and often require 24/7 operations.
Braun says he did side-by-side test comparisons at his facility of blenders from three vendors over the course of three months, using nine different drug and nutraceutical products, as part of a nine-month evaluation process. "They all make good equipment," he says. "But it's not just the equipment. It's the engineering and service around it" that cemented the deal with Bohle. - George Miller