Developing and Optimizing Roll Compacted Granulations for Tableting

Granulating is the most popular way to prepare materials for tableting. Many excipients and actives used in modern direct compression processes are granulated. The granulation process, using only pressure for particle size enlargement is dry granulation (Roll compaction (RC)). The RC process, even though simple in principle, can be quite complex. Besides proper machine setup, formulation, and roll choices, multiple primary adjustments (Feed screw, tamp screw, roll speeds; Roll pressure) need to be balanced to obtain the desired outcomes (Gap, density, particle size enlargement). Then we have the complication of the screening/milling step that follows to consider obtaining the desired particle size. Our target for the granulation step is to improve the quality of the tablet and the efficiency of the tableting process. The RC granulation is a milling-formed granule and as such is most often not round and smooth thus even though enlarged/densified needs to be finished, mixed, and handled to reduce potential particle erosion issues. Also, early in the RC granulation development process, the change in compact ability of the processed materials needs to be considered. In this 2.5-hour fully accredited course, participants will develop skills in balancing the optimization of RC process while reducing risk associated with performance in the final tableting process and tableted product performance. This course will include numerous examples to review and help advance the decision-making skills of the participants.