Tablet Press Machine also known as Tablet Press/ Tablet Compression, is a mechanical equipment that compresses the bulk powder into pills/tablets. Learn How the pill machine works.
The Mechanical Tablet Compression Machine is also known as Tablet Press. The Tablet Compressor is a mechanical equipment that compresses the bulk powder into tablets into individual tablets with similar size (uniformity) and quantity (same weight).
This Tablet compression machine (Tablet pressing) is a well-known and famous piece of equipment in the Pharmaceutical Industry. The Tablet press can be used to manufacture a wide variety of tablets by using Pharmaceutical products (API), Nutraceuticals, herbal products, cosmetics, and many more.
Tablet Press Machine Working Principle
The granulated powder material is accurately pre-measured into a cavity which formed by two punches and a die. The punches are pressed together with high force to fuse the material together, during the process of tablet formation.
A tablet is formed by the combined pressing action of two punches and a die. In the first step of a typical operation, the bottom punch is lowered in the die creating a cavity into which the granulated feedstock is fed. The exact depth of the lower punch can be precisely controlled to meter the amount of powder that fills the cavity.
The excess is scraped from the top of the die, and the lower punch is drawn down and temporarily covered to prevent spillage. Then, the upper punch is brought down into contact with the powder as the cover is removed. The force of compression is delivered by high-pressure compression rolls which fuse the granulated material together into a hard tablet. After compression, the lower punch is raised to eject the tablet.
Tablet tooling design is critical to ensuring a robust tablet compression process. Considerations when designing pharmaceutical tablet compression tool design include tooling set, head flat, top head angle, top head radius, head back angle, and punch shank. As well as ensuring a single dose of the drug, the tablet tooling is also critical in ensuring the size, shape, embossing, and other physical characteristics of the tablet that are required for identification.
There are 2 types of tablet presses: single-punch and rotary tablet presses. Most high-speed tablet presses take the form of a rotating turret that holds any number of punches. As they rotate around the turret, the punches come into contact with cams which control the punch’s vertical position.
Punches and dies are usually custom-made for each application, can be made in a wide variety of sizes, and shapes, and can be customized with manufacturer codes and scoring lines to make tablets easier to break. Depending on tablet size, shape, material, and press configuration, a typical modern press can produce from 250,000 to over 1,700,000 tablets an hour.
Tablets is been manufactured in pharmaceuticals in a dosage form that comprises a mixture of active substances and excipients. A mixture is usually a powdered form, pressed or compacted from a powdered into a solid dose. For efficient tableting, it includes diluents, binders as well as granulating agents.
To make the tablet visually attractive pigments are been added, as well as sweetness or flavors are also been added to enhance the taste. During the process of tablet making, with the help of a tablet press machine a polymer coating is been applied to make the tablet smoother, and easier to swallow.
This controls the release rate of active ingredients making them more resistant to the environment as well as enhancing their appearance. It is been seen that most of the tablets are been dispensed in solid dosage forms as compared to compressed tablets.
One of the important factors to be considered with tablet processing is that all ingredients should be fairly dry, powdered, or granular that should be uniform in size. The reason behind poor drug manufacturing is the mixed particle-sized powders that segregate during manufacturing operations due to different densities.
With content uniformity, the accurate dosage is been provided in a convenient portable package that can protect unstable medications. In order to aid with tablet recognition, colored coatings, embossed markings, and printings are been used.
Types of Compression Machine
The tablet compression machine is mainly of 2 types – Single Station Table Press & Multi-Station Tablet Press.
The single station table press or Single punch is the simplest of the tableting equipment. The machine can be operated manually with the help of an electric motor. These types of tablet press are used in small batch production, mainly in R&D, and can be used to manufacture tablets having odd shapes.
The multi-station tablet press machine, on the other hand, is also known as the rotary press and is also one of the most important types of machinery in the pharmaceutical industry. Used mainly for high production, it has the ability to produce a large number of tablets in an hour depending upon the configuration of the machine.
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