Injectable Powder Filling and Bunging Machine

An Injectable Powder Filling and Bunging Machine also known as a vial dry powder filling machine or sterile powder filler is a specialized piece of pharmaceutical equipment designed for the precise filling of sterile powders into glass vials, followed by immediate bunging (insertion of rubber stoppers) to maintain sterility and integrity. These machines are essential in the production of injectable medications, such as antibiotics, vaccines, or lyophilized drugs, ensuring compliance with cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practice) standards. They minimize contamination risks by integrating filling and stoppering on a single monobloc platform, often under laminar airflow for Class 100 sterile environments.

Injectable Powder Filling and Bunging Machine are widely used in pharmaceutical manufacturing lines, where they can handle vial sizes from 2ml to 100ml, filling doses ranging from 50mg to 1500mg with high accuracy (±1% for uniform density powders).

Injectable Powder Filling and Bunging Machine Video

Key Features

• Compact Design: Built on a sturdy frame with access doors for easy maintenance.

• Sterility Controls: Inbuilt HEPA filters, laminar airflow, and optional isolators for aseptic processing.

• Safety Mechanisms: “No Vial, No Fill” and “No Stopper, No Bung” systems to prevent product loss; rejection/sampling stations for quality checks.

• Versatility: Supports half/full bunging for lyophilized products; compatible with dry/wet rubber stoppers.

• Advanced Controls: PLC with HMI touchscreens, servo motors for precise indexing, and vacuum-based filling for accuracy.

How It Works

1. Vial Feeding: Sterilized vials enter via a turntable or slat conveyor belt, then move to a star wheel for indexing.

2. Powder Preparation: Sterile powder is stored in a hopper with mechanical agitators to ensure uniform density. It’s pre-loaded into a secondary hopper.

3. Filling: Vials reach the powder wheel station. Vacuum suction draws precise powder volumes into wheel ports. The powder is then dispensed into vials. Servo-driven wheels ensure consistent dosing.

4. Bunging/Stoppering: Immediately after filling, rubber stoppers are fed from a vibrating bowl and pressed into vials using pneumatic or mechanical presses.

5. Exit and Integration: Filled and bunged vials exit via conveyor for downstream processes like capping, labeling, or inspection. The entire process is enclosed to avoid exposure.

This vacuum-air pressure system ensures no powder spillage and high volumetric accuracy, making it ideal for sensitive injectables.

Salient Features of Powder Filling and Bunging Machine

• Compact cGMP model.

• “No Vial, No Filling” system eliminates wastage of costly powder.

• Multiple Dosing System.

• High Volumetric Filling Accuracy of ±2% of uniform density Injectable powder can be ensured by setting the depth of piston in the port of powder wheel.

• Built-in Rubber Stoppering Unit saves lot of space in the Sterile Area & reduces the length of Laminar Flow.

• Individual drive for the filling & sealing to match the speed of filling & sealing.

• All motors are provided with appropriate contractors and relays for the protection against any overload or jamming.

• Safety clutch system to avoid Vial breakage.

• Variable AC Frequency Drive for speed adjustment.

• All contact parts are easily removable for mandatory Autoclaving/ Sterilization.

• Digital counter for counting production output.

Working Principle of Injectable Powder Filler Machine

The sterilized powder is stored in powder hopper is agitated by pair of mechanical agitators for maintaining consistency and uniform bulk density. The powder wheel having eight ports rotates at the pre determined speed below the powder hopper with practically no clearance. Powder wheel consist of Piston in each port and behind the powder wheel vacuum plate is provided there is no clearance between powder wheel and vacuum plate due to back spring pressure. Precise volume of powder is sucked in to the port of powder wheel during vacuum according to the piston length different fill size can be achieved. The excess powder is doctored off by a doctor blade. Doctor blades can be adjusted from outside also without removing powder hopper. When powder wheel indexes further and remain in the port due to the vacuum till it reaches just vertically above the container. The time dose of Compressed air (Nitrogen Gas), sterilized low pressure air sequentially flushes out powder from the port of powder wheel in to the container one by one. The filled containers are immediately separated on the conveyor by vial separator and moves further for stoppering operation. (Different grooves separator can be used which depends on the container diameter or multiple dosing systems). The sterilized, siliconised, rubber stoppers stored in the vibrator bowl moves to vibratory bowl and stacked vertically in the rubber stopper chute. The container is hold firmly between pair or timing belt to pickup rubber stopper from exit end of the chute. Further the container is passed between two pressing roller for tight fit fixing of rubber stopper.

Technical Specification of Injectable Powder Filling Machine

* Power voltage can be adjusted as per customer’s domestic power voltage requirements.
* Rights of technical improvements & modification reserved.
* Illustrations & dimensions are shown for information purpose only.