Tablet Coating Pan Unloading

This is another example of how a modest investment in vacuum conveying equipment can eliminate backbreaking labor, speed up operations and keep work areas cleaner. Tablets were previously scooped by hand from the coating pan into the cartons. Operators developed chronic back problems from reaching into the pan and spillage was accepted as unavoidable.

A 70-degree concentric cone material receiver is mounted on a mobile electric lift. The vacuum hose on the left connects the receiver to a vacuum pump in a separate room. The suction hose is positioned in the tablets in the coating pan and tablets are conveyed from the pan into the receiver. A timer allows just enough conveying time to draw enough tablets into the receiver to fill one carton. The receiver then discharges through the funnel into a carton. As the receiver refills, the operator repositions the lift to locate the funnel over another carton.