The automatic micrometer screw.

A new analytical method - the automatic micrometer screw - has been established to measure the edge height of tablets. The equipment offers many advantages compared with other methods. The precision is slightly increased compared to the traditional micrometer screw and the measurement with a small punch and a linear voltage transducer. No longer any touch of the tablet is necessary and influences results. The method works automatically and continuously, no manual measurement of the tablets is necessary. Up to ten tablets can be analyzed at the same time because of a rotary table on which they are positioned. Thus the method is not personal intensive. By combining the results from the measurement of punch displacement which means tablet height in the die and the results of the measurement with the automatic micrometer screw which means tablet height outside the die, a convenient measurement for the decompression process is possible.