Small Scale Mill
Laboratory Milling Tool — Gerteis
Overview
The Small Scale Mill is a manually operated laboratory tool that reproduces the milling step of the PACTOR® roller compactor line at very small scale. It mills from a few grams to 50 g of roller-compacted ribbon in a single pass, making it ideal for early-phase R&D when API is scarce or expensive.
Early development studies at the University of Bonn showed that generic lab or household mills do not reproduce the particle size distribution of full-scale roller compactors. Gerteis engineered the Small Scale Mill specifically to replicate the grinding principles of the PACTOR® line, so granulate obtained at the milligram-to-gram scale predicts what the production machine will produce.
Key Specifications
| Batch Size | Few grams to 50 g per pass |
| Operation | Manual — milling bars push material through screens |
| Screens | Interchangeable wire mesh and rasping screens |
| Format | Benchtop |
| Materials | Pharma-compliant |
| Collection | Drawer-style granule collection |
PSD comparison — Small Scale Mill (10 g) vs. MACRO-PACTOR® (100 g) across four excipients
Key Features
Production-Predictive PSD
Benchmarked against a production MACRO-PACTOR® with pocketed rotor across multiple excipients. Results showed close particle size distribution correlations following typical dry-granulate distributions.
Interchangeable Screens
Multiple wire mesh screens and a rasping screen are easily fitted and changed, supporting a wide range of mesh sizes to match different formulation specifications.
Compaction Simulator Companion
Fills a critical gap: compaction simulators produce ribbon but lack an integrated granulator. The Small Scale Mill provides the milling step for full compact-to-granule characterization.
Minimal Material Requirement
Processes as little as a few grams per pass. Manual operation and drawer-style collection minimize material loss, preserving scarce or expensive API for downstream testing.
Applications
- Early-phase R&D when API is rare or expensive
- Scale-down studies to predict full-scale PSD from ribbon samples
- Granulation characterization from compaction simulator ribbons
- Formulation screening with very small material quantities
- Academic research in pharmaceutical process development
MHS Pharma — Northeast US Representative
MHS Pharma provides direct technical representation for Gerteis across the Northeast United States. Contact us to discuss the Small Scale Mill for your application.
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