Pharmaceutical powder dispensing by ultrasonic vibration dosing system

Abstract

Powder technology is one of the most important parts in manufacturing industry when materials applied in large quantities of solid particles. Dispensing technology for powders can significantly improve operation efficiency in manufacturing processes. The powder dispensing technologies have a broad range of applications. The powders exhibit different flow behaviours due to different physical properties. This project aims to reveal the dispensing mechanism and pharmaceutical powder flow behaviour in a designed dispensing hopper under the ultrasonic mechanical vibration, and to develop a powder dosing system to achieve the precise dispensing of pharmaceutical powders.

The experimental work focuses on the dispensing device design and pharmaceutical powder dispensing tests by using ultrasonic vibration dosing system. The experimental results indicate that the ultrasonic vibration dosing system is capable of fast (less than one second) and precise (RSD<5%) pharmaceutical powder dispensing in small-dose (milligram scale) and large-dose (gram scale). A dome-control mechanism is identified in the ultrasonic vibration dispensing process. Powder dome formed in the dispensing hopper as a “valve” of powder flow under the ultrasonic vibration. The dispensing results represent that the parameters of dispensing hopper, i.e. orifice size, hopper angle, and working voltage signal, i.e. vibration duration, are the critical factors for the powder flow rate and dosage uniformity of the dispensing.

Additionally, the working voltage signal properties and mechanical vibration performance are investigated in the ultrasonic vibration dispensing device by using the digital oscilloscope and the 3D scanning vibrometer.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Shoufeng Yang: orcid.org/0000-0002-3888-3211

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