The pharmaceutical industry is a billion-dollar enterprise responsible for producing medicines for hospitals and pharmacies across the globe. While many people have used over-the-counter or prescribed medicines before, few people fully understand the complexities involved in their creation. For anyone curious, here is a brief list of essential equipment in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Centrifuges are an important asset for any pharmaceutical company. They are machines that rapidly rotate to separate liquids from solids. In pharmaceuticals, this removes any solid particles from liquid or vice versa. For example, they may remove salt from water or separate mixtures. Given the high rotation speeds of the machines, the solids suspend and dry in an inner surface of the drum. Top discharge centrifuges discharges solids without destroying liquid particles.

Agitators mix liquids to promote chemical reactions that can also heat or cool mixtures. These machines mix, dissolute, disperse, and maintain powerful, high-speed agitation to combine transfers for their intended result. Unlike general mixing, agitation is a controlled and specific process. Anchor agitators are some of the most commonly used in pharmaceutical manufacturing. They increase the heat transfer rate in reactors from the transfer surface. Agitators can further promote chemical reactions, disperse immiscible liquids, blend miscible liquids, or dissolve solids into liquid.

Laser marking machines are another type of essential equipment in pharmaceutical manufacturing. As they’re name suggests, these machines mark pharmaceutical products with laser beams. This could be through UV lasers, laser etching, laser annealing, or laser ablation. There are many factors to consider when selecting a laser marker, such as optic properties, accuracy, and speed. Given that pharmaceutical manufacturing produces millions of products each day, it’s imperative that manufacturers choose a high-quality laser marker to ensure the quality of their products.

Lastly, tube fillers fill and seal ointments, creams, and gels. While this may not seem as important as a centrifuge or laser marker, tube fillers ensure each tube of medicine is filled according to its specifications. Further, it gives manufacturers reliable results. Tube fillers can also print batch numbers, expiration dates, directions of use, and ingredient lists.