Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1163217
Tablets & Capsules September 2019 43 John Tillotson is pharmaceutical tech- nical business director at Abitec (800 526 4547, abiteccorp.com). The com- pany develops and manufactures spe- cialty lipids and surfactants to deliver solutions in solubilization, emulsifica- tion, and lubrication. H V O i s h i g h l y p l a s t i c a l l y deforming and can actually increase tablet hardness as much as or more than industry-standard dry binders, such as copovidone and hydroxy- propyl cellulose, while simultane- ously providing free-fraction lubri- cating properties that those excipi- ents don't exhibit. T&C ence at the die wall and punch sur- faces still decreases ejection force and helps keep the tooling free of material buildup. HVO isn't as effective in keeping punch surfaces clean during compac- tion as magnesium stearate, but you can use it alone as a lubricant when other tablet-blend components don't require surface lubrication. HVO's real benefit comes when used in conjunction with magnesium stearate. This combination allows you to reduce the amount of magne- sium stearate in a blend by adding HVO, which can improve tablet durability, disintegration, and disso- lution. In addition, the compaction mechanism of HVO increases tablet hardness, independent of increases in tablet hardness due to its nonspread- ing lubrication behavior. These qual- ities make HVO a very rare breed of excipient: a lubricant that is also a dry binder. Tablet dry binders Typically, you can classify tab- let-blend components into three categories by their compaction mechanisms: brittle fracture, elastic recovery, or plastic deformation. In practice, excipients can exhibit more than one compaction mechanism, but it's common for one mechanism to be dominant. Excipients that compact by brittle fracture tend to crumble under com- pression pressure into smaller units, exposing new surfaces for compac- tion. Excipients that exhibit elastic recovery tend to reduce in volume under compression but recover or bounce back upon removal of the compression pressure. This tends to reduce tablet durability, as this recovery typically results in a loss of bonding energy and can break bonds that have formed during the compac- tion cycle. In contrast, plastically deforming materials yield to com- pression pressure and readily reduce in volume without recovery after the compression pressure is removed. Plastically deforming excipients act as glue for the tablet, generally increasing tablet hardness and often reducing tablet friability. Protect product quality and integrity through the entire production process with conveying, collection, containment and cleaning solutions. Reduce the risk of cross-contamination with end-to-end dust control Find your solution at nil skindustrialvacuums.com