LabAutomate MilliDose Mark II dispenser

The MilliDose Mark II dispenser is an example of augur based continuous feed precision powder dispensing technology for precisely dispensing mg quantities of very poorly flowing powders in an industrial setting. It was developed for and at MannKind Corporation to dispense Technosphere Insulin powder in the 3mg to 15mg range in less than 2 seconds with ±3% accuracy and is subject of patent application WO2009149727A1. It is a continuous feed microprocessor controlled augur based dispenser designed to operate in an array and be continuously fed with powder. This Dispenser was designed to be a part of next generation Powder Filling line. The dispenser gets real time feedback every 50mS from a Sartorius load cell, and uses this data to control powder flow in real time.

Salient attributes area:

Adapts to batch to batch variations in powder properties automatically on the run
Eliminates powder wastage
Fast reaction valve to precisely cut-off powder flow
Microprocessor based control system architecture to facilitate new powder dispensing algorithms
Deterministic rate of fill software algorithm
The Mark II dispenser is being designed for continuous operation of 8000 hours or 5 million cycles
Mark II dispenser has been made GMP compliant
The MilliDose Mark II dispenser can be fully submerged in an ultrasonic bath for cleaning
Portable interconnects by using a Header circuit board with gold plated contacts on the dispenser, which can be contacted using pogo-pin interconnects & thus the entire array of dispensers can be connected by the push of a lever. Together with a CAN bus interface, this allows for minimal wiring and easy maintenance.

Powder Fill Data :
The figure on the left above shows the dispenser. The dispenser control electronics, the augur and valve motion and control system are hosed in a sealed housing. The top of the housing contains printed circuit board on which contact is made using a pogo-pin based interconnect. The contacts are for power supply and CAN bus. The CAN bus is used for communications, since the dispensers are mounted in an array, to minimize wiring.