Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1163217
14 September 2019 Tablets & Capsules Assess your methods of cleaning, measurement, repair, and press setup to decrease damage to tools: • Determine if personnel remove multiple tools at a time from storage or transfer totes. If so, does the employee hold more than one tool in his or her hand simultaneously? Best practice is to handle just one punch at a time. • Ascertain whether multiple tools have the opportu- nity to touch one another during cleaning. Do you place a handful of tools loose in a bucket? Tool maintenance. You must maintain the sharpness of the land's outside edge to minimize flashing. Buffing the punch tip can round the land outside edge, as shown in Figure 1. While buffers are very common in tool rooms and are quick to use, they can affect tablet quality when used to polish a punch cup. Instead, consider using a hand-held, variable-speed rotary tool with a small brush. Also, tool manufacturers typically use a stereo zoom microscope to efficiently inspect tools, and I rec- ommend investing in one for your tool room as well. This microscope allows maintenance personnel to quickly identify uneven wear, cracks, and excess material left in an engraving after cleaning as well as hard-to-see changes that may be occurring in the land or other parts of the punch tip. A loop can do this as well but isn't as efficient or as effective at spotting small details that can lead to big problems later. After cleaning, repair and polish the punches if needed. If you find that the punch land has become too thin or see a J-hook pattern, rolled edges, dents, or uneven edges, you can fix them with a 600-grit polishing stone, also known as an Arkansas stone. Stoning is a quick and simple way to restore land to its proper size with a sharp outside edge to minimize flashing. T&C References 1. American Pharmacists Association. Tableting Specification Manual, seventh edition, pages 36-38. 2. International Organization for Standardization. ISO 18084.2011: "Press tools for tablets—Punches and dies." Available at https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std: iso:18084:ed-2:v1:en. Mike Beyl is Western tablet tooling specialist at Wilson Tool International (866 752 6531, www.wilsontool.com). Wilson Tool's tableting division provides compression tooling, includ- ing standard punches and dies, accessories, and custom-de- signed tool solutions, to the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, industrial compression, confectionary, and other industries. • Determine if you can eliminate tasks. For example, do you transfer tools from a cart to a cleaning rack? Could the cleaning rack be a part of the cart that lifts off? • Establish how often you really need to polish, mea- sure, and inspect tools. Formulations can vary regard- ing abrasiveness and stickiness. Consider optimizing your schedules based on your product's needs. Evaluate your methods of storage and transport in trays, bins, totes, tables, carts, and racks and redesign them to reduce damage to tools: • Decide if damage to tools occurs during transport and storage. Can you change your methods so that tools don't come into contact with one another during those processes? • Determine if movement during transport causes damage. Do you secure your tools during transport? • Evaluate the weight of the tools during transport. Is the transport weight excessive? • Determine if tools are easy to reach for a given task. Are you attempting to save floor space by making drawers or shelving too low or too high? Doing so can increase risk to operators, slow process times, and raise the chance of a tool mishap. • Determine if tools placed loosely on tables or carts are free to roll off an edge. Does the table or cart have an edge barrier? Does the workspace have a floor mat to cushion a tool's fall in high-risk areas? Figure 1 Punch tip and land maintenance Rounded outside edge caused by improper buffing increases flashing Sharp outside edge reduces flashing Blended inside land edge Cup Land Punch tip