The Centre of Process Excellence (C.O.P.E.™)
C.O.P.E.™ is a hub for innovation and collaboration. Based at PSL’s headquarters in Liverpool, UK, the main focus of the facility is to provide a creative, cutting-edge space for process development, where engineers and manufacturers can generate, develop and progress new approaches to production, side by side.
At PSL, we provide our industry partners with more than just process hardware. We realise that manufacturers are increasingly looking to equipment suppliers for integrated solutions as they think holistically about their process and visualise future production scale-up.
By opting for our C.O.P.E.™ services, our industry partners can rest assured that they will receive high-performing PSL production equipment that is fine tuned to their unique process. Our hands-on approach and passion for finding the best solution will help deliver projects successfully and solve the toughest problems, together.
A Place of Collaboration and Innovation
Proof of Concepts
Investing in new processing equipment is often an important financial decision, especially if it relies on a new process. At C.O.P.E.™, we provide knowledge and reassurance to future users by offering proof of concepts.
Using our smaller scale equipment, we define together the right test protocol required to gain the most value and insight into the process. Our team use the findings and results to confirm larger scale equipment specifications with you. Such proof of concept can also determine whether further small scale development is required. If so, this can be provided with support of C.O.P.E.™ or it may be advantageous for companies to carry this out in-house with their own teams by acquiring their own GFD®Lab Nutsche Filter Dryer.
Filtration Rate – Test under various conditions – atmospheric, under vacuum, under pressure, etc, and selecting the right porosity mesh.
Product Washing – Test varying solvent wash ratios, temperature, agitator speeds, etc., supported by filtrate conductivity measurements.
Product Drying – Tests include varying temperature set-points or vacuum levels. plotting Loss on Drying (LOD) curves and/or microscopic analysis of samples.
Because every process is unique, any product stream from the C.O.P.E.™ experiments (slurries, filtrates, solids, samples, etc.) is available for further analysis by your teams.
Scale Down Optimisation
Whether it is a technical transfer you are bringing in-house or a need for optimising a process efficiency, scaling down a process can bring benefits such as streamlining the development work at a lower cost.
If you are not equipped at smaller scale, C.O.P.E.™ can support you by running the process in our Lab.
Qualification Fast-Track
When delivering processing equipment like the MSR™ Microsphere Refiner for complex injectable formulation, understanding the equipment in-depth and optimising parameters is at heart of the qualification process.
If required, we can offer support during the embedding period by having your equipment located at C.O.P.E.™ where our process experts will dial-in the parameters against your actual product (or placebo depending on environment hazards).
Inspiring the Next Generation
At C.O.P.E.™, we recognise that every process is different and there are different ways on exactly how your specific process objectives can be achieved.
Whether you come to our Lab to overcome scale-up issues, increase your product yield, gain more production flexibility or enhance your product quality, we can collaborate with you on your development journey and help you solve your challenges. Additionally, you can visit the C.O.P.E.™ Lab to learn about best practice and techniques through our training activities.
We equip our industry partners with the building blocks to help achieve their specific production objectives and enter the next era of manufacturing.