Air Compressor for Pharmaceutical – ELGi Compressors Australia

Standardized Compressed Air

ELGi’s range of oil free air compressors delivers unmatched air quality that is compliant with ISO8573-Class 7 norms ensuring zero traces of microbial contaminants along with the IS:10500:202 certification for water quality ensuing seamless manufacturing of medicines, capsules and other consumable products.

Quality By Design

ELGi's Quality by Design approach helps prevent the occurrence of quality lapses that helps mitigate the high risk involved in industries that deals in drugs manufacturing with dictated design measures to prevent contamination in the delivered air.

Better Reliability With Low Maintenance Cost

ELGi range of oil free air comes with efficient rotors with best in class performance, single-stage operation and low operation speed ensuring low maintenance cost and high energy savings with better reliability and peace of mind.

Applications of Compressed Air in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Clean Compressed air is vital to the industry and its usage can be classified into two categories: Process Air and Direct Contact.

Process Air Application

Process applications employ compressed air for a specific kinetic activity. For example, during pill production, the uncoated are churned in a large drum as part of the coating process. The Compressed air often drives the drum and it plays an important role in operating the conveyor systems.

Direct Contact Application

Direct contact entails the direct contact of compressed air with the application, thus making air quality critical. For example, compressed air is used to coat tablets to ensure their structural integrity. Impurities in this air will compromise the integrity and worse, contaminate the product. It is also critical in jet milling, where nitrogen is used to reduce active ingredients. Specifically, the powder is fed into a milling chamber where compressed air or nitrogen, usually in a vortex motion, promotes particle-to-particle collisions. Particle classification is made by inertia, following reduction via impaction and abrasion.

Compressed air is also used for bottle cleaning to safely remove dust and small particles from containers before filling. The system is particularly suitable for removing loose contaminants that may have accumulated during shipping or storage. Containers first enter the rinsing area and are then bathed with ionized air generated by special transvector air flow amplifiers. The static charge that attracts debris to the surface of the containers is neutralized. Rinsing heads use a blast of compressed air to clean them. A vacuum collects the loose particles which are then disposed of. As a final direct application, membrane technology with nitrogen generators uses compressed air forced through a polymeric hollow fibre to selectively permeate oxygen, water vapour and other impurities out of its side walls while allowing nitrogen to flow through its centre and emerge as high purity N2 gas.

Oil Free Air Compressor in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Amidst the companies that provide pharmaceutical products & services, Oil free air compressors play a pivotal role in the manufacturing of medicine and related products. With growing FDA scrutiny, strict warnings over toxic impurities and delicate pharmaceutical manufacturing processes, the quality of compressed air meeting the highest standards, is of utmost importance. On the other hand, continuous air supply must be guaranteed, since a disruption can lead to an immense loss of production and a negative impact on the manufacturer’s reputation due to product contamination.

Australia’s thriving pharmaceutical industry needs compressed air, free of entrained oil and other contaminants for clean and pure air during the manufacturing process such as Tablet Coating & Drying, Bottle cleaning, Nitrogen separation and much more. To achieve high air purity levels, compressors must offer specialist air treatments and must adhere to industry regulations to ensure debris, particulates and oils are removed, and that is why they need an oilless compressed air system. The amount of allowable oil in compressed air depends on its application. In line with the ISO8573-Class 7 compliance norms which classifies the quality of air based on oil content as Class 0 to Class 4.

Oil-free compressors are used in diversified pharmaceutical applications, from conveying capsules and packaging to providing factories with a steady supply of clean, breathable air. Oilless compressors are essential components to pharmaceutical industry processes, particularly during manufacturing medicines, capsules and other consumable products. As these products require the highest purity, the inclusion of oil-free air compressors ensures production remains free from contamination within automated production lines hence lowering rejection rates for packaging applications.