Application
Mechanical Conveying in Pharmaceutical Production
Answer in brief
Pharmaceutical plants use mechanical conveying sparingly, and the reason is cleaning.
Every flight, bearing and seal is a surface that has to be cleaned and proven clean, which is why closed vacuum transfer dominates in this environment.
- Justify any mechanical transfer against a closed alternative.
- Design for dismantling without tools.
- Document the cleaning and prove it by swabbing.
Reviewed October 21, 2026 · Updated October 21, 2026
The problem
A screw conveyor in a pharmaceutical line adds surfaces, crevices and a bearing that has to be kept out of the product space.
Each one extends the cleaning validation rather than the capacity.
Desired outcome
A conveying line that delivers the rate, keeps the product and the room separated and can be maintained without dismantling the plant around it.
Process approach
Where mechanical transfer is used, the design is crevice-free, fully drainable and dismantles without tools.
Bearings and drives sit outside the product space, and seals are specified for the cleaning regime rather than only for the dust.
In most cases a closed vacuum transfer replaces the conveyor entirely, which removes the surfaces instead of cleaning them.
- Cleaning method and swab points defined before the equipment is ordered.
- Material certificates and surface finish records as part of the delivery.
- Gentle handling where granules or tablets are transferred.
Selection factors
- Cleaning validation approach and the surfaces it must reach.
- Containment band of the compound.
- Product fragility, especially for granules and tablets.
- Documentation required for qualification.
- Whether a closed transfer can do the same job.
Common failure modes
- Crevice in the conveyor that the cleaning procedure cannot reach
- Bearing inside the product space
- Granules damaged in a screw that was sized for powder
- Equipment installed before the cleaning method was agreed
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