Today I am going to share my thoughts on, what are an Inflatable seal and its uses in the pharmaceutical sector. Before I begin let’s understand briefly about the pharmaceutical industry.

The world population as of today when I am writing this blog has already crossed 7.8 Billion people.
With the advancements in medicine formulations and a huge global population, the growth of the pharmaceutical industry was inevitable. The need to serve mankind and animals from infectious diseases, pandemics, or genetic diseases became the growth pillar on which the pharmaceutical sector is thriving. Pharmaceutical is one sector that does not fluctuate with external conditions, as drugs are required 24×7. This is not a seasonal but an evergreen industry.
Therefore the need for manufacturing more drugs is not a choice but a necessity.

Coming to the manufacturing process, drugs or as we call as medicine in layman language,
is processed by using binding APIs ( active pharmaceutical ingredients ), intermediates using various unit processes to manufactured injectables or oral solid doses of drugs.
Some of these unit processes and their machinery are

1. RMG ( rotary mixer grinder ) for milling operations
2. FBD/FBP ( Fluidized bed processors or Fluidized bed dryers ) for wetting and drying operations
3. Coater machines for coating the tablets.
4. tableting machinery for tableting

Here is where I am going to introduce the product Inflatable Seals. let’s understand inflatable seals.
Its nothing but a hollow rubber profile manufactured in form of an enclosed tube that can dynamically expand using a pneumatic air supply to seal a gap between any two rigid surfaces.

What kinds of machines use inflatable seals

1. IBC ( Intermediated bulk containers )

   As mentioned above, the inflatable seal does the perfect sealing job because of its ability to expand and seal using a pneumatic air supply. It’s perfect for use in IBC lids for sealing the container, especially containing moisture or light-sensitive drugs.

2. Fluid Processing equipment

   As the name suggests, fluid processing equipment like blenders, fluidised bed dryers also use inflatable seals to seal between various section of the machine. Generally 3-4 inflatable seals are utilised in an FBD equipment. for sealing its Filter bag chamber, the top chamber , bottom chamber. These chambers are also known as upper plenum, lower plenum and filter bag plenum.

3. Coater machine

   Coter machines generally have high pressure spray guns discharging coating solution. To prevent any contamination due to leakage, again inflatable seals are used.

Some of the major OEM’s that use inflatable seals in their machines

1. ACG
2. Glatt
3. Alliance Engineering
4. Anish Pharma
5. GEA
6. Freund Vector
7. Bohle

there are many other pharmaceutical equipment manufacturers, above names are some of the well-known global brands.

Conclusion

1. Inflatable seals are extremely critical for the running of pharmaceutical machineries, without which perfect sealing not possible.
2. Inflatable seal is the new technology for complete sealing of processing equipment.

Western Rubber’s manufacturers Inflatable seals for majority of the top OEM’s as well as for end users.
Our expertise in sealing solutions has enabled us to partner with well-known global names for manufacturing inflatable seals.
For more information on inflatable seals please visit www.westernrubbers/inflatable-seals.com