The impact of roller compaction and tablet compression on physicomechanical properties of pharmaceutical excipients

Abstract

Material properties play a significant role in pharmaceutical processing. The impact of roller compaction (RC) and tablet compression on solid fraction (SF), tensile strength (TS) and flexural modulus (FM) of Avicel DG [co-processed excipient with 75% microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and 25% anhydrous dibasic calcium phosphate (DCPA)], lactose and 1:1 Mixture of the two was studied. Materials were roller compacted at different force and roller type and compressed into tablets over a range of compression pressures (CP). SF, TS and FM were determined for ribbons and tablets. Roller force was a significant variable affecting SF while roller type was not. Both SF and TS of tablets increased with CP with Avicel DG exhibiting greater TS than that of 1:1 Mixture while tablets of lactose had the lowest TS. The TS of tablets decreased exponentially with tablet porosity. Ribbon of Avicel DG had higher TS and lower SF than lactose and greater reworkability. This is attributed to plastic deformation of MCC resulting in high degree of bonding and fragmentation of DCPA that fills the void spaces during tablet compression. The lack of significant increase in SF and low tablet TS for lactose upon compression is likely due to its brittle fragmentation and some elastic recovery as shown by the high FM.

Development of a Simple Mechanical Screening Method for Predicting the Feedability of a Pharmaceutical FDM 3D Printing Filament

“…compression) ( 16 ). Unsurprisingly, brittle extrudates are more suitable in that regard, as brittle materials require less time and energy to be milled or granulated as opposed to ductile/flexible materials ( 17 ). Therefore, most pharmaceutically relevant polymers that are suitable for HME often yield brittle extrudates that readily fracture, and while this makes such polymers suitable for traditional pharmaceutical applications of HME, it renders those polymers unsuitable for FDM implementation.…”

Evaluation of Chitosan-Microcrystalline Cellulose Blends as Direct Compression Excipients

“…In this study, the compact density of tablet increased with increase in the proportion of chitosan (F2 to F5) but decreased with increase in the proportion of lactose (F6 to F9). These phenomena are, respectively, explained by the plastic deformation behaviour of chitosan [ 21 ] and the fragmentation behaviour of lactose [ 22 ] upon compaction. The difference in the compact density is also directly related to the true density of the codiluent.…”

“…These factors explain why porosity reduced as the proportion of the polymer was increased for batches F2 to F5. The insignificant difference in the true density of lactose and microcrystalline cellulose ( Table 2 ) as well as fragmentation of lactose rather than plastic deformation upon compaction [ 22 ] explains the insignificant difference in porosity of tablets (F6 to F9) containing different proportions of the two excipients.…”

Evaluation of the compression process diagram in presence of magnesium stearate

“…This was because the material was becoming more elastic and more energy was required for the elastic expansion leading to a reduction in the energy available for plastic deformation and bond formation which resulted in a decrease in tensile strengths (6). The lack of significant increase in solid fraction and low tablet tensile strength for lactose upon compression is likely due to its brittle fragmentation and some elasticrecovery as shown by the high flexural modulus (7). The results of study indicate that addition of microcrystalline cellulose in the formulation in levels between 10% and 30% significantly improve the tablet hardness at lower tablet compression forces (8).…”