Pharmaceuticals
The pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetics industry generates a variety of products that can become a nuisance dust during production and packaging. Depending on the application, there may be concern with cross contamination of other products, cGMP issues, as well as occupational exposure limits to limit plant worker exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (API’s).
Special Considerations
Many pharmaceutical dusts are combustible and those operations generating or handling pharmaceutical dusts can require special mitigation efforts to minimize fire and explosion risks. Standards such as NFPA 654 can provide guidance for those who generate and handle these types of dusts.
Pharmaceutical dusts may also have identified adverse health impacts, and special mitigation strategies may be required to limit occupational exposure below levels OSHA or other health organizations have established for these materials.
Equipment Options
- Stainless steel contact surfaces
- Wash down/clean out designs
- FDA approved paint
Products for Pharmaceuticals
Cartridge
Donaldson Torit® advanced-technology cartridge dust collectors and a variety of filter media that conquer the challenges of most types of industrial dusts, including pharmaceutical, chemical, grain, bulk/powder, food, metal and others.
The best-in-class Downflo® Evolution (DFE) dust collector is capable of reducing equipment size and number of required filters by up to 40% compared to a typical cartridge collector.
The high performance Downflo® Oval (DFO) family of dust collectors provides up to 25% more filtration capacity than other same-sized cartridge collectors.
Vibra Shake™ is a self-cleaning collector for intermittent applications where high collection efficiency is essential, such as reclaiming precious metals.
Baghouse
We offer a complete line of dependable, rugged baghouse dust collectors including RF, Dalamatic®, IRD, Unimaster® and many others to keep your operation running smoothly.
The Dalamatic® dust collector is an automatic reverse-jet fabric filter dust collector. It is most suitable for continuous process applications involving heavy-duty product recovery, or collection of large concentrations of nuisance dust.
Collector Design Considerations
- The design and construction of dust collectors, containment devices may need to address a range of potential issues; including configuration decisions to minimize material build-up, seam sealing of collectors and ducts, duct attachment and sealing techniques, and potential use of secondary monitoring filter such as HEPA filters.
- In some instances, devices with special seals are required to reduce or eliminate the discharge of dust from the dust collector when transferring material to storage containers for disposal. (See customized 15.2 m / 50 ft liner system video above.)
- In other situations, custom sealed filter change-out procedures may become necessary during filter servicing to reduce exposure when the dust in the collector has potentially adverse health impacts. (See custom sealed filter change video on the "Videos" tab.)
Pharmaceutical Processes That May Generate Dust
| Crushing | Milling | Screening | Micromization |
| Mixing | Pelletizing | Dispensing | Sampling |
| Granulating | Drying | Coating | Batching |
| Blending | Compressing | Weighing | Packaging |
Custom Bag-in/Bag-Out (BIBO) Filter Change-Out
Learn about the Donaldson Torit® Custom Bag-In/ Bag-Out (BIBO) process. This custom sealed filter change-out procedure was tested with the Broadspire surrogate testing protocol to an occupational exposure limit of less than 1 microgram per cubic meter exposure over an eight hour period. The standard operating procedure is identical to the ILC Dover 15.2 m / 50 ft liner change out.
Custom 50 Ft Liner Dust Discharge with Air-Lock
Watch video footage taken during actual SMEPAC testing at the ILC Dover test facility. The video depicts a portion of the process for replacing the Donaldson Torit® custom dust collector hopper discharge system utilizing the ILC Dover 15.2 m / 50 ft Continuous Liner. Test results confirmed an occupational exposure limit of less than 1 microgram per cubic meter exposure over an eight hour period. The standard operating procedure (SOP) is identical to the filter BIBO change out.
Custom Bag Crimping Demo Process Using the ILC Dover Crimping Tool on the Custom Bag-In/Bag-Out System
The following video depicts a portion of the process for the ILC Dover crimping tool as used on the custom Donaldson Torit Bag-in/Bag-out system.
Six Things to Consider When Purchasing a Dust Collector
We advise the following six considerations to ensure you get exactly what you need in a dust collection sysem.
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Downflo® Oval Captures Ambient Pharmaceutical Dust
The Downflo® Oval dust collector with Ultra-Web® filter and Easy-Duct™ duct work has helped GPSI capture dust.
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