Automation of Aqueous Film Coating

Abstract Among the major manufacturing segments of a pharmaceutical dry products department, coating-to a much larger extent than granulating and tableting-has been at the forefront of the quest for productivity, and hence, the earliest target for automation. Among the reasons for this situation, the following factors can be cited: Coating is a repetitive, labor-intensive, batch process; it is an "inexact" process, to be formalized and disciplined; it is easy to computerize, as it is slow; its control strategies are simple and well understood.