Major expansion at Coating Place completed

Microencapsulation specialist Coating Place Inc has just completed a major expansion of its contract manufacturing capacity in Wisconsin, US.

The 85,000 sq. ft. unit in Verona consists of 35,000 sq. ft. of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production suites, 40,000 sq. ft of warehousing with refrigerated storage, and 10,000 sq. ft. of engineering and maintenance space.

Central to the expansion is the addition of extrusion/spheronization and Chilsonation equipment to complement the company’s existing capabilities in pharmaceutical grade Wurster (bottom spray) fluid bed coating, used to encapsulate solid materials such as powders, granules, crystals and capsules.

Using extrusion equipment, granulated materials are processed into spaghetti-like strings, and is often used to eliminate dust in formulations and generate a material that is easier to work with and has superior properties. Spheronization refers to a method of processing granulated or extruded materials into small pellets, and is used for similar purposes.

Chilsonation refers to a technique in which materials are compacted between grooved rollers to form sheets, which can then be milled into a dense powder.

Addition of these processes “can significantly reduce the production time and cost for all new products,” said the company.

The commercial expansion of the facility will also include large commercial scale Wurster fluid bed coaters which can accommodate batch sizes between 125-600kg using both aqueous and solvent based coating systems.

And in an effort to be more environmentally friendly, Coating Place says it has also installed a new plant wide regenerative thermal oxidizer system that is 99.9 per cent clean burning and will recover more heat for use in the facility.

The new facility adds to Coating Place’s existing 100,000 sq. ft. facilities and should take the headcount at the company from 90 to around 130 people when fully staffed.

The Wurster coating technique was developed at the University of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), and was licensed to Coating Place in the mid-1970s. Since then, the company has expanded to provide contract formulation development, technology transfer, scale-up and commercial manufacturing with analytical support, handling solvent, aqueous, and hot melt formulations.