Offering unparalleled milling flexibility and improved powder processing efficiency, The Fitzpatrick Company and Quadro Engineering Corp. recently developedthe SDx Series™ – Smart Drive Exchangeable Platform, the world’s first production-scale milling and screening platform offering three distinct powder processing solutions on a single, common drive.
Launched earlier this year, the IDEX MPT team previously received an increase in URSs (Customer User Specifications), demonstrating a need for powder processing solutions that offered the ability to interchange heads utilizing the same drive unit.
With the added benefit of reduced capital investment and cost of ownership by up to 75%, the new platform is designed to simplify IDEX’s core portfolio, and affords operators the ability to quickly and easily interchange the three heads to fulfill specific processing requirements, improve production efficiencies and reduce bottlenecks.
Formulators, Scientists, Researchers & Developers, and Technical Transfer Specialists can opt for a single platform and select the most appropriate powder processing technology to suit the application, thereby affording total flexibility and reducing overall space requirements. They include Fitzpatrick’s FitzMill™, Quadro’s Comil®, and FlexSift Security Screening technologies.
Like the SLS-Scalable Lab System™, the SDx Series™ utilizes SMART-detect™, a unique equipment feature that automatically recognizes the head being installed and adjusts RPM to the appropriate level for optimum material processing, thereby reducing the potential for Operator error.
Wilf Sanguesa, Product Manager, Pharma Processing at Quadro Engineering / The Fitzpatrick Company, commented: “Quadro and Fitzpatrick have pioneered the flexibility of interchangeable milling heads in their respective fields. Since 2002, Fitzpatrick’s L1A lab model has afforded users the flexibility to interchange FitzMill and conical mill heads; and Quadro introduced the ComilSift in 2009, the first production-scale, single platform, dual-head interchangeable system for milling and/or security screening. With this heritage and our technical focus on delivering scalable and predictable material processing/milling results, we believe the new platform offers a standout, disruptive solution to the market.”
The Fitzpatrick Company and Quadro Engineering Corp. are Units of IDEX Material Processing Technologies and have been trusted partners of the majority of the world’s top pharmaceutical, chemical and food ingredient processing customers.