Contract Manufacturing - Spray Drying

The Production business unit of UFAG LABORATORIEN offers you contract manufacturing of spray products in our in-house spray tower in Switzerland. Spray drying of pharmaceutical active ingredients, plant extracts and other substances is performed in accordance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).

Contract spray drying at UFAG LABORATORIEN is characterised by the following points:

• Manufacturing permits for pharmaceutical active ingredients - GMP certificate
• Incoming goods checks: Testing of the supplied raw materials and storage of reference samples is available on request: Analysis of the raw materials in accordance with your specifications
• In-process checks: e.g. for residual moisture, bulk density and size analysis
• End inspections / approval: Analytical testing of the finished product according to your specifications and including microbiology with no loss of time
• Detailed documentation of the manufacturing process allows batch-exact traceability of the products

The facility fulfils GMP regulations completely. Operations have been authorised by the Swiss authorities and are regularly examined by Swissmedic.

Production capacity

The performance range of the facility is approximately 400kg of water evaporation per hour. Production capacity amounts to between 150 and 400 kg/h, depending on the properties of the product to be processed.

Flexibility and the wishes of the customer are a priority for us. Production campaigns from less than 100kg up to many tonnes can be handled without any problems.

The principle of spray drying

Drying is one of the oldest methods of conservation for foodstuffs. Spray drying effectively uses the principle of surface area enlargement. As a result of the atomisation of liquids, fine droplets are quickly and gently dried in the hot air stream.

The temperature of the hot air stream is between 150 and 230°C. It acts on the product for the duration of just a fraction of a second. As a result of the water evaporation, the powder particles cool off again almost immediately. Therefore, gentle drying of your products with no product-damaging effects is guaranteed.

Please read here for a detailed description of the spray drying method.
 

Advantages of spray drying

The advantages of spray drying are:

• Drying and shaping of the particle in one step
• Gentle drying of temperature sensitive products
• Large product throughput
• Continual process
   

Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)

The production facility fulfils GMP regulations. Cleaning between the different production runs is validated and documented. The production area is approved by Swissmedic and is regularly audited.
 

Filling and packaging

You can choose the type of container to be filled, e.g. bags, cartons, bag-in-box or big bags. Depending on the product, amounts from 5 to 1,000 kg per container can be filled.

Quality testing

Our departments of Foodstuff Analysis and Pharmaceutical Analysis are ready to provide quality testing with their comprehensive range of products. This gives the customer a considerable time advantage because analysis (for example microbiological investigations) can then be started during the production run. A wide range of analytic methods are available for pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs and agricultural ecology. The laboratories are accredited in accordance with ISO 17025, GMP certified and FDA approved.

Our services in detail:

• Consultation on spray drying:
• Raw material testing
• Preparation of product solutions
• Pre-treatment of spray solutions (pasteurisation, substrates)
• Homogenisation
• Addition of flow additives during the spraying process
• Spray drying
• Filling and packaging
• Quality testing and approval tests
• Additional services are according to the directory of services or upon request.