Twin screw extruder

• Subject Area: Medicine ; Production Technology
• Term: Funded in 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 439400908

At the Center of Pharmaceutical Engineering (PVZ) at TU Braunschweig, scientists from the Faculties of Mechanical Engineering and Life Sciences, in particular from the fields of process engineering, pharmacy as well as micro and production technology, work interdisciplinary on joint research projects. The aim of the center is to develop and characterize efficient formulation strategies as well as manufacturing and processing methods for challenging active pharmaceutical ingredients by bundling the expertise from the participating disciplines. Special attention is paid to active substances with difficult processing properties such as those with poor solubility or sensitive biomolecular structure. With regard to important future issues, major topics of interest also include continuous production and the development of individualized medicines. With the extruder applied for, it is intended to establish a central technology at the PVZ for these research objectives. The device is to be used, among others, for the development of novel, extrusion- and granulation-based dosage forms, in particular for efficient and individualized therapy. In this context, a deep understanding of process-structure-property relationships in extrusion and granulation as well as in downstream operations is going to be developed. This involves research on methods for process and product monitoring in order to define rationally derivable process limits and process-quality-correlations as well as the development of simulation methods for the elucidation of underlying microprocesses.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Zweischneckenextruder für das Zentrum für Pharmaverfahrenstechnik
• Instrumentation Group: 2200 Kunststoffextruder und -blasmaschinen
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Braunschweig
• Leader: Professorin Dr. Heike Bunjes