I-Corps: System for Sampling of Powder Blends in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be realized first in pharmaceutical manufacturing where powder blends are required to prepare tablets. The new sampler will bring products to market in less time providing benefit to patients and pharmaceutical companies. The proposed device (sampler) will potentially protect employees in pharmaceutical plants from exposure to potentially toxic drugs. It will potentially be useful across a wide variety of industries and be suitable for powder blends such as vitamins, nutraceuticals, powdered milk, and other food products. The sampler will improve quality control and potentially lead to representative sampling in quality control, thereby reducing risk to customers and patients.This I-Corps project will define the essential components and features for sampling powders in pharma and food manufacturing applications. The current technology does not provide representative samples from these important commercial products. Current approaches use a spear (thief sampler) to obtain samples from only a few pre-selected locations within the manufacturing equipment, and will typically fail to detect variations or problems outside of these locations. The spear also often alters the composition of the material that is sampled, providing inaccurate measurements of the composition of the powdered product. The new device will be based on best practices first established within the mining industry, which have not been adapted to the pharmaceutical and food industries due to lack of suitable sampling devices. The goal of the I-corps project is to develop powder sampling methods to improve the quality of powder based products, and avoid unnecessary product loss due to poor sampling practices.