Pine pollen consists of dried pollen from pine plants such as Pinus massoniana and Pinus tabulaeformis. It is rich in protein, amino acids, vitamins, minerals and a variety of bioactive ingredients. It is widely used in the fields of health products, functional foods and animal feed additives. In order to improve its processing characteristics and application efficiency, it is usually necessary to process it into granules. Wet granulation is one of the most commonly used and efficient technologies to achieve this goal.

I. Working principle of pine pollen wet granulator

Wet granulation is a process of adding a liquid binder to a medicinal substance or raw material powder; it uses the bridging and adhesion effect of the binder to promote the agglomeration of fine powder particles and form uniform particles. This method covers a variety of specific technologies, mainly including extrusion granulation, rotary granulation, fluidized bed granulation and high-speed shear granulation. Compared to dry granulation, the granules produced by wet granulation have unique characteristics-such as rounded surface, uniform particle size, high mechanical strength, excellent wear resistance and excellent compressibility-which make the method the most widely used in the pharmaceutical, food and health care products industries.

II. The core goal of pine pollen granulation

The main purpose of granulating pine pollen is to achieve the following key goals:

1. Improve physical characteristics: Significantly improve material mobility, minimize dust generation (reduce dispersibility), and reduce material adhesion to equipment surfaces, thereby ensuring accurate metering during subsequent packaging, filling or tabletting operations.

2. Optimize the production process: Since granules act as intermediates in tablet manufacturing, excellent flowability is crucial to ensure that the weight differences of the final tablet meet quality standards. In addition, the granulation process also improves the compressibility of the material and helps produce tablets with an aesthetic appearance and suitable hardness.

3. Improve product quality: The produced granules require regular shapes, uniform particle size and aesthetic appearance to meet the visual quality standards set by the final product.

4. Protect the production environment: Effectively reduce dust and powder particles suspended in the air, thereby creating a cleaner and safer operating environment to meet the requirements of modern manufacturing regulations and standards.

III. Detailed steps and requirements for the wet granulation process of pine pollen

In order to ensure the quality of granulation, the following rigorous process must be strictly followed:

1. Pre-processing stage:

·Pass the pine pollen raw material through an 80 - 100 mesh screen to effectively remove potential impurities and coarse particles, thereby ensuring uniform and consistent fineness of the basic powder.

·Depending on the performance requirements of the final product (such as hardness, disintegration rate), appropriate amounts of excipients-such as microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) or soluble starch-can be added to enhance the formability, stability and functionality of the granules.

2. Wet material preparation (mixing and wetting) stage:

·In a mixer, fully mix the pretreated pine pollen and the excipients evenly.

·Add a wetting agent-such as purified water, a specific concentration of aqueous ethanol, or other suitable binder-to the powder mixture in batches and slowly.

·During the mixing process, ensure that the wetting agent is evenly distributed until the material reaches the ideal "wet mass" state-it is characterized by that it can gather into a mass when squeezed by hand, but it is easy to loosen when touched. This is a critical step in determining the quality of subsequent particles.

3. Granulation stage:

·Load the prepared wet material into an oscillating granulator or a high-speed rotary granulator.

·Extrude the material through a 12 - 20 mesh screen to form wet granules. The mesh number of the screen can be adjusted according to the target particle size.

4. Drying and granulation stage:

·Spread the wet particles evenly on a tray and place them in a hot air circulation oven for drying; a more efficient fluidized bed dryer can also be used for drying.

·The drying temperature is usually controlled between 40 - 60°C to prevent degradation of heat-sensitive components. When the moisture content of the material drops to ≤8%(or meets specific standards), the drying endpoint is reached.

·The dried granules may contain a small amount of lumps or fine powder; therefore, the sizing process must be carried out through a 14 - 18 mesh screen to screen out finished granules with uniform particle size, and the fine powder under the sieve is collected for subsequent rework.

IV. Core characteristics of high-efficiency wet granulator for pine pollen

Designed to meet stringent processing requirements