Improving the feeder shoe design of an eccentric tablet press machine

Abstract

In this work, a DEM model is used to analyze the segregation mechanisms during the operation of an eccentric tablet press machine with the objective of reducing them by using inserts in the feeder shoe. In order to validate the DEM model, nine simulations combining three mixtures and three feeder shoe designs were conducted and their results were compared to experimental data. These nine simulations also allowed to determine the feeder shoe designs that segregate all of the mixtures least and which of the mixtures segregates more than the other mixtures, whatever the feeder shoe was used. Additional simulations were conducted to modify the geometry of all the feeder shoe designs by the inclusion of sixteen inserts. By conducting these simulations, it was possible to reduce the SI for all the configurations that combined the mixtures and the feeder shoe designs, attaining a reduction of 51% for one of them.