Most of us have been exposed to tablets of all sizes- round, oval, disc, oblong, square, etc. and at some point of life, we've also thought of why these tablets have a particular shape and how are they made so perfect?
For the latter part of the curiosity, tablets are shaped on the basis of their constituents; the rules for giving shapes and colors follow guidelines set by the FDA. For example, all tablets containing the constituent Sildenafil citrate would be blue in color and have a triangular shape.
The former question about how a tablet gets its shape, so perfect and precise lies in the mechanical miracle of a tablet compression machine or a tablet press.
Tablet press is a mechanical device that condenses powder forms of constituents into tablets. To form a tablet, the granulated material must be metered into a cavity formed by two punches and a die, and then the punches must be pressed together with great force to fuse the material together and resulting in a hard tablet.
The procedure could be understood in the following manner:
A tablet is the result of compression action executed with the help of two punches and a die. The bottom punch is lowered in the die that creates a cavity which allows feedstock to be fed in it. The feed stock that is fed in the cavity is in the form of granules- a procedure performed on the raw material before introducing it as a feedstock in the compression machine.
The upper punch is then lowered in the cavity which compresses the powder using high pressure compression rolls, giving an end product of a hard tablet.
Tablet presses are of two types, namely rotator and single punch compression machine. Desired shapes can be achieved by using punches that are specifically designed as per shape and size.
Typical compression machines can produce 250,000 tablets an hour. Machines such as double rotator compression machines are also manufactured for faster results and to increase production. Such machines produce up to 1,000,000 tablets an hour.
Giving shape to a tablet is very necessary as it gives an impression of the quality of tablets. It is also important to keep a check on the shape from packaging point of view; a bigger or smaller, irregular-shaped tablet may not fit the packaging strip. Therefore, a tablet compression machine is of utmost importance in achieving a well-designed world class tablet.
Legend Pharma Technologies is the invention of a keen entrepreneur having an operational experience of 25 years in pharmaceutical machineries, food & beverages machines as well as allied machineries. To take advantage of over his vast experience, it was built-in in 2011 with the dictum to fabricate the world class range of machinery and export them to various countries.
