Fundamentals of powder compression. I. The compactibility and compressibility of pharmaceutical powders.

In spite of the widespread use of tablets, the theoretical understanding of the tableting process has been limited. During the last decades considerable research has been done in the field of powder technology and compaction. A survey of the literature and compression equations reveals many studies on the characterization of powder properties, most of which relate to volume reduction under pressure, i.e., to the compressibility of the powder bed. For practical purposes, however, it is also important to know the compactibility of a powder bed, i.e., the ability of a powdered material to be compressed into a compact of specified strength. This strength has to be defined, e.g., as radial tensile strength or deformation hardness. Thus the first part of this review comprises the theory of powder compression of individual substances, compression parameters, compression equations, and mechanical properties of compacts, including compact strength tests and compact hardness tests.