For 98 years, GEA Courtoy has been designing, building and servicing superior and versatile rotary tablet presses for the pharmaceutical and other industries. As a leader in technology and product innovation we have developed specific know-how through the years such as:
- manual to automatic rotary tablet presses for research, pilot-scale and full production facilities
- presses for normal, clean-room, contained and highly contained evironments
- presses for the production of single and bi-layer tablets.
Our Rotary Tablet Compression Challenge of today - to drastically reduce the production cost per tablet and to enhance the security of the operator against increasingly potent drugs.
History
In 1912, Edouard Courtoy founded a machine shop in Halle, Belgium, in order to perform custom design and manufacturing of mechanical components. He became aware of the growing need in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries for specialised production equipment. To fill this need Edouard, along with his sons Paul and Jean, began to design and manufacture tablet presses, mixers, granulators and coating pans. By the end of 1920, Courtoy had established its name as a highly reliable and knowledgeable supplier of different kinds of processing equipment to the Pharmaceutical and the Chemical industry.
In 1928, Courtoy introduced its first Rotary tablet press, the Courtoy R1. The design of this press was so ahead of its time that the direct descendant of the R1, i.e. the R1/2, is still being produced today for very specific applications.
In the years between 1950 and 1960, the demand for Courtoy tablet presses grew so strongly that the ancillary items were eliminated from the equipment range and the Courtoy company decided to concentrate all its efforts on becoming the market leader in high-speed rotary compression machines.
Under the competent leadership of Freddy Villée and Pierre Courtoy, the evolution of technology towards GMP and automated operation was initiated during the 70s. Speciality & customised presses for various high-tech applications, such as ferrite memory cores, micro-balls and nuclear fuel pellets were designed and built. Today, most nuclear fuel produced in the world is compressed on Courtoy rotary presses.
In the early 80s, Courtoy presented the first press under full computer control. At this time, all hand wheels for manual adjustment were eliminated from the press. These operations were now performed by the Memo Control, the first microprocessor based control system for high-speed rotary tablet presses.
In 1991, Courtoy joined the Processing Machinery Division of GEI International, an engineering group specialised in packaging and processing machinery, to allow for further expansion. During this period the complete Courtoy machine range for both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical applications was completely renewed leading to an increased world-wide market share.
In November 1999, the GEA Group acquired the pharmaceutical division of GEI International, including Courtoy. Today, GEA Courtoy is a member of of GEA Pharma Systems, which unites the technologies of Aeromatic, Buck, Collette, Courtoy, Fielder, Lyophil, Nica and Niro to supply advanced processing solutions for solid dosage forms to the pharmaceutical industry. Combining its efforts with those of its sister companies, GEA Courtoy is able to deliver not only state-of-the-art roraty tablet presses, but also complete integrated production lines.
Key dates:
- 1912 Edouard Courtoy founds a workshop
- 1918 First equipment for pharmaceutical & chemical industry: presses, mixers, etc.
- 1932 First rotary tablet press R1
- 1962 Focus on tablet presses
- 1972 Development of the OMNI-CONTROL
- 1978 The first GMP press R100
- 1981 First microprocessor-based control system for rotary press: Memo-Control
- 1982 GMP double sided press R200
- 1984 First in-line weight control A.W.S.
- 1990 Courtoy acquired by GEI International, UK
- 1990 New range of presses: R190 & R290
- 1994 New small scale press: R090 with Multi-Control
- 1995 Development of PLC-based I.T.S. control system
- 1996 New range of presses: R190F & R290F
- 1996 ISO9001
- 1997 PLC/PC-based Multi-Control
- 1998 R253 high-duty double output or double layer tablet press
- 1999 R190FT Pharma press with removable turret
- 1999 R353 high-duty single, double and triple layer tablet press
- 1999 Courtoy acquired by GEA AG, Germany
- 2000 R190HC High Containment press with isolators for toxic materials
- 2000 R233 for technical applications launched at Achema
- 2002 MODUL™ S launched at Interpack
- 2005 MODUL™ D launched at Interpack
- 2006 MODUL™ S with WOL ECM (Wash-off-Line ECM) for potent products launched at Achema
- 2007 MODUL™ P for R&D and small-scale production launched at Powtech
- 2008 PERFORMA™ P with EDD (Exchangeable Die Disc) and DS (Die Shells) launched at Interpack
- 2008 Bi-layer ECM for the MODUL™ P is introduced
- 2009 PERFORMA™ S will be launched at Achema