The effects of the tabletting machine speed on physical characteristics of pharmaceutical powders.

During compaction, crystallised materials are subjected to fragmentation which depends not only on the deformation undergone but also on the punch speed of the tabletting machine. Then, this process is followed by reagglomeration of the ground particles which also depends on the punch speed. Likewise, it was shown that materials with a relatively low specific heat such as Emcompress and acetylsalicylic acid are more sensitive to machine speed than boric acid or sodium chloride. From the present study it appears that tablet hardness is not a sufficient criterion to guarantee the reproducibility of a production batch.