Wurster Coater Modeling using EDEM and AcuSolve

Wurster coaters are mainly used in the food and pharmaceutical industry to coat tablets, powder, and pellets. The coating takes place by driving the coated material cyclically through a draft tube with a continued stream of air while getting sprayed with the coating agent.

When a coater is well designed and operates under the correct conditions for the material that is being coated, a uniform and therefore higher quality film coating can be obtained, when compared to other coating processes. However, understanding how the process works and optimizing it is extremely challenging using physical testing alone, which is not only very expensive and time consuming, but also in some cases unachievable. The best and most efficient way to find the optimal design or operational parameters for a coater with a given material is through simulation.

By coupling Altair software tools Altair® EDEM™ with Altair® AcuSolve®, as seen in this example, engineers can gain key insights into the coating and drying process. Using EDEM coupled with AcuSolve, users can identify how to improve on the coating obtained in the process by modifying the draft tube position, spray rate or airflow rate and temperature.