Two factors could be regarded as primary factors for the compactability of powders: the dominating bond mechanism and the surface area over which these bonds are active. Owing to considerable experimental difficulties, these factors have not been evaluated in any detail for pharmaceutical materials. Instead, more indirect, secondary factors are normally studied and used for correlations with tablet strength. Such secondary factors particle size, shape and surface texture. Also the importance of volume reduction mechanisms, i.e. elastic deformation, plastic deformation and particle fragmentation have been studied in detail.For the investigation of dominating bond mechanisms and estimation of the magnitude of the surface area of the solids involved in interparticulate attraction in compacts several pharmaceutical excipients representing both plastically deforming materials (sodium chloride, Avicel@ PH 101, Sta-Rx 1500@, and sodium 2143