PROCESSING PROBLEM

PICTURE

DEFINITION

REMEDY

CAPPING

Capping is often directly related to air entrapment. That is, the tooling (punches & dies) is designed to allow the air to escape between the upper punch tip and the die wall. The upper punch tip is smaller in diameter than the lower punch tip in order to allow the air to evacuate during compression. Lamination is when the tablet splits apart in single or multiple layers. Lamination is often blamed on over compressing - too much compression force flattens out the granules, and they no longer lock together. Lamination can also occur when groups of fine and light particles do not lock together.

LAMINATION

The first step to resolve capping is to increase dwell time. Dwell time is controlled by press speed, compression stations (main compression & precompression) and punch head flat diameter. Punch head flat diameter is often overlooked. Reducing thickness and increasing dwell time will give these particles more of a chance. Dwell time can be increased by adding pre-compression or slowing the machine speed down. Adding a taper into the die will help eliminate lamination, however, many lamination problems are directly attributed to the formulation or to the preparation of the product.

PICKING

Adherence of the tablet material from the surface of a tablet by a punch Because of engraving or embossing or debossing on the punch tips like small enclosed areas in the letters like A, B, D, O, Q etc

STICKING

Sticking always occurs in low melting point substances, and moisture supports this defects, lower the speed up of upper and lower punch leads to weight variation of tablets. It produces rough and chipping surface tablets. It develops material on both punches. Lack of drying is

Lettering should be designed as large as possible, even the tablet size can be increased by reformulation Colloidal silica can be added as polishing agent to formula Using additional binder to increase cohesiveness of granules and thereby causing decreased adherence Plating of punch faces with a chromium material to obtain smooth face which is non-adherent Avoid wet granules. Partial or complete substitution of low melting point components with high melting point materials in the formula Proper drying of the granules to remove excessive moisture

basis of this.

Selection of Binding agent is essential to solve sticking. Ideal selection of lubricant in desired proportion will minimized this problem.

CRACKING

Due to rapid expansion of tablets when deep concave punches are used Small, fine cracks observed on the upper and lower central surfaces of tablets
Unequal distribution of colour on the tablet surface with light and dark areas standing out in an otherwise uniform coloured surface

Reduce granule size. Add fines. Moisten the granules properly and add proper amount of binder
By using bright coloring agent that will mask all the color variations of the ingredients Proper drying by reducing the drying temperature Colored adhesive gel solutions must be added when they are hot too much cooler powder mixtures to avoid precipitation It is better to incorporate fine powder adhesives like acacia and tragacanth into product before adding the granulating fluid By changing the solvent system or binder system Grinding to small particle size

MOTTLING

PEELING

Film peels off exposing the tablet surface and is associated with cracking and splitting

Adjust molecular grade of polymer Balance spraying and drying rate

Increasing the plasticizer content or changing the plasticizer can decrease the incidence of bridging.

LOGO BRIDGING

This occurs when the coating fills in the lettering or logo on the tablet and is typically caused by improper application of the solution, poor design of the tablet embossing, high coating viscosity, high percentage of solids in the solution, or improper atomization pressure.

ORANGE PEEL ROUGHNESS

TWINNING

Surface appearance of similar to an orange or lemon and is associated by cracking and splitting. This refers to a coating texture that resembles the surface of an orange. It is usually the result of high atomization pressure in combination with spray rates that are too high. This is the term for two tablets that stick together, and its a common problem with capsule shaped tablets.

Thinning the solution with additional solvent Use mild drying condition

Balancing the pan speed and spray rate. modify the design of the tooling by very slightly changing the radius.

Reference : http://formulation.vinensia.com/2011/05/tablet-defects-cause-and-remedy.html http://www.techceuticals.com/techtips/show_news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1075236628&archive =&start_from=&ucat=7&show_cat=7 http://www.dipharma.com/TC_20050401_20.pdf http://formulation.vinensia.com/2011/05/coating-tablet-defects-cause-and.html