Fitzpatrick, Quadro, Steridose Open New Technology Center

Global equipment suppliers Fitzpatrick, Quadro, and Steridose opened their new technology center based in Waterloo, ON, Canada on May 5, 2022.

At more than 3,600 sq ft, this new facility is comprised of three self-contained and fully equipped test labs and an analysis area, alongside meeting rooms in which to discuss test results. 

The new technology center is set up as a space in which researchers, developers, and manufacturers can come and develop customized test matrices, trial batch sizes from small to large quantities using the range of equipment that spans lab, pilot, and full production scale models. Valuable feasibility and scale-up trials with the latest technologies will help customers in reducing integration and commissioning times.

“The team is excited to apply our collective ingenuity and internationally leading expertise to help our customers improve their manufacturing processes, speed up timelines, and provide a clear pilot-to-mass-scale manufacturing blueprint,” said Wilf Sanguesa, IDEX pharma research & technology manager. This new lab enables us to do even more testing with customers, while at the same time having space to do our own research and development.”

The test lab cells are well-resourced with equipment from Quadro, Fitzpatrick, and Steridose including:

* Quadro & Fitzpatrick solids milling and screening with the SLS, SDx mid-scale and production scale models, Overdriven Comils

* Fitzpatrick roller compaction – LCS Lab-scale, CCS320 and CCS720 production-scale models

* Quadro Liquids – Y0 jet mixer, HV0/HV1 high-shear homogenizers, Z1 high-shear emulsifier, and ZC0/ZC1 high-speed powder dispersers

* Steridose – small to mid-scale liquid batch mixing

The analysis area contains a comprehensive array of equipment that will enable complete solids and liquids particle size characterization including:

* Particle size distributions through laser diffraction

* Particle shapes via 1000x binocular microscope

* Powder flowing evaluations (rheometer) and bulk & tapped densities

* Compacted ribbon densities from a volume & density analyzer

All test results are professionally presented in a customized report with recommendations on the equipment and set up parameters, which can be transferred to the manufacturing environment, back at site. If you can’t make it to a test, then video conferencing and streaming enables customers to be there virtually.

The new technology center is also home to a training academy that will offer practical and theoretical sessions on the latest technology, trends, and applications.

"The launch consolidates our commitment to provide customers with world-leading solutions and industry-changing technologies. This will enable us to work more collaboratively with customers, partners and researchers to solve the challenges of today and prepare for the opportunities of tomorrow," said Brad Besse, IDEX VP MPT processing technologies.

The centre is open from Monday to Friday, 8:00am – 5:00pm and the team are ready to welcome you to conduct your own testing.