Experiment and simulation of the dry particle coating

The objective of this study is to get a better understanding of dry powder coating process using experiments and numerical method. Materials chosen as host particles are SUGLETS® (spherical granules mainly consisting of sugar) and as invited particles, magnesium stearate (MgSt). These two materials are introduced in the Cyclomix high shear mixer. Operations were performed at various mixing time and rotation speed of the Cyclomix. The surface morphology analysis has confirmed that Suglet particles are coated by MgSt. The product properties such as flowability, wettability and particle size distributions were also characterized. The particle motion in the Cyclomix has been simulated by using Discrete Element Method (DEM). Both number of collisions and the collision force frequency are calculated. The simulation shows an increase of the collision number with the rotational speeds. This result indicates that the higher rotation speed should be better for the dry coating process as long as the particles aren’t broken down.