Established equipment for making softgel capsules
Ekato Group
This company has developed a system for making hardshell and softgel capsules (photo). To keep the heat-up times short and make product of high consistency, good mixing is important. In particular, mixing and dispersing technology has been designed to guarantee homogenous distribution of substances as well as product stability. Traditional softgel capsule shells are made of animal-based gelatin, with all ingredients added to a gelatin melter. To keep the heat-up times short and make product of high consistency, a strong top-to-bottom mixing is essential. For the best mixing performance, the companys Paravisc axial flow impeller is used, which outperforms an anchor impeller. The Paravisc is capable of moving entrapped air bubbles of all sizes to the surface, efficiently and without breaking them up. Switching from a traditional gelatin cooker with an anchor impeller to a system with a Paravisc impeller more or less doubles the productivity, says the company. For vegetarian shell material, the formulations are harder and resistant to higher temperatures than the traditional animal-derived gelatins. The S-JET homogenizer is very well suited for this task because of its ability to pump even the thickest materials at a high rate. Hall 2, Stand 346 — Ekato Group GmbH, Schopfheim, Germany