Giorgia Bianchi and Marco Jussen, spare parts managers, talk about the spare parts management for Milling and Micronization equipment

How does spare parts process begin?

Each equipment manufactured here at FPS follows a tailor-made design depending on the customer requirements and needs. Therefore, a specific spare parts list is defined and customized for every single machine produced. Our technical department is responsible for this task and rely on their vast experience as well as the customer needs.

What can the customer find in a spare parts list?

For FPS it is important to facilitate as much as possible the proper selection of the part to be substituted in case of equipment maintenance or malfunctioning. For this reason, in the spare parts section of the Use and Maintenance Manual, the customer will find:

• a list containing an item description and identification code for each part with the suggested quantity to have in stock;
• an exploded drawing of the equipment which only lists the spare parts items.

Spare parts for Milling and Micronization equipment

Milling and micronization are two different methods to reduce the particle size of pharmaceutical and chemical products.

If a mill uses a mechanical system to operate and, so, mechanical parts such as blades or pins are involved, in a micronization system the size reduction is achieved through particle-to-particle collision generated by high speed jet streams.

Let us concentrate on micronization systems, or spiral jetmills.

First items to pay attention to are gaskets, because of their deteriorating nature: these can be supplied in different materials following system requirements and customer needs and are intended to guarantee the proper tightness of working chamber and the correct connection between the assembled parts.

Following, it is important to concentrate on gas injection line, which is the start of the process. The parts involved are:

• Nozzles and bushes, that communicate directly with the chamber and increase in quantity depending on the chamber dimensions.
• Injector, where process gas starts to flow into the system.
• Venturi, key process part where speed and pressure are set.

Then, it is suggested to keep in stock the part called classifier, needed for the correct classification of micronized particles.

All these items are mainly produced in stainless steel and have different sizes and internal diameters according to applications: R&D, pilot plant and production plant.

The jetmill is usually complemented by a feeder, useful to dose the product, and a cyclone where a further powder classification takes place. To avoid stoppages in production, it is suggested to keep in inventory:

• a gaskets spare kit for the feeder;
• replacement filtering sleeves; this item is contained inside the cyclone. It is essential to have it always clean and ready-to-use from the inventory.

Click here to access the offer dedicated to spare parts!

Contact our team and define together your custom spare parts kit:  sales@fps-pharma.com