In the production process of traditional Chinese medicine, the powder feeding stage has long faced challenges such as dust dispersion, cross-contamination, operator health risks, and low production efficiency. A traditional Chinese medicine manufacturer in Zunyi, Guizhou, through cooperation with Head Powder, introduced a sealed feeding project for Chinese medicine powders, successfully achieving a sealed and automated upgrade of the feeding process, thereby improving production environment safety and product quality stability.

Customer pain point analysis

Traditional methods for feeding Chinese medicine powders use manual feeding or open feeding, commonly facing the following issues:

• Severe dust pollution:During the feeding process, powder often generates a large amount of dust, which not only pollutes the production workshop environment but may also cause raw material waste.
• High risk of cross-contamination:If different batches and varieties of powder are not effectively isolated, cross-contamination is likely to occur, affecting drug safety.
• Operator Health Hazards:Long-term exposure to chemical powder and dust environments makes operators prone to respiratory system infections, with prominent occupational health risks.
• Low production efficiency:Manual feeding is slow, labor intensity is high, and it is difficult to accurately control the feeding amount, affecting batch consistency.

Head powder sealed feeding solution

To address these pain points, Head Powder has customized a sealed dosing system for Chinese medicine powders for the client. This solution includes a sealed feeding station, negative pressure conveying pipelines, automatic weighing and control systems, and high-efficiency dust removal modules, enabling sealed operation throughout the entire process from powder unpacking, conveying, feeding to metering. The main features are as follows:

• Fully enclosed process:Sealed connections are used between the feeding station, silos, and pipelines, combined with a negative pressure system, which helps powder flow in a sealed environment and prevents dust leakage.
• Automated control:Integrating PLC and weighing modules allows for more accurate control of each feeding volume, supports formula management, reduces human error, and improves batch reproducibility.
• Easy Cleaning Design:The equipment surface features rounded transitions with no dead corners, making it easy to quickly disassemble and clean, meeting GMP requirements for cleaning verification.
• Safety protection:Equipped with explosion-proof design, electrostatic grounding, overload protection, and other safety measures to accommodate the potential flammable and explosive properties of traditional Chinese medicine powders.

After the complete project was put into operation, workshop dust concentrations decreased, feeding efficiency improved by about 60%, product uniformity was significantly enhanced, and operator labor intensity and health risks were effectively controlled. Through technological optimization, Head Powder has helped customers achieve a leap from traditional manual dosing to intelligent sealed dosing, providing reliable support for the production of traditional Chinese medicine.