What Is a Tablet Press?

The tablet press is mainly used for the research of tablet technology in the pharmaceutical industry. The tablet press is an automatic continuous production equipment for pressing pellets into round, irregular and 13-mm-diameter tablets, text, symbols, and graphics.

Tableting machine

The tablet press is mainly used for the research of tablet technology in the pharmaceutical industry. The tablet press is an automatic continuous production equipment for pressing pellets into round, irregular and 13-mm-diameter tablets, text, symbols, and graphics.

Chinese name

Tableting machine

Foreign name

Tablet Press Machine

Classification

Single punch tablet press, flower basket tablet press, etc.

Use

Study on Tablet Technology of Pharmaceutical Industry

Definition of tablet press: According to the standard terminology, there are the following definitions about tablet press:

(1) Tablet pressing machine, a machine that compresses dry granular or powdery materials into a tablet through a mold.

(2)

Models can be divided into

Place granular or powdery materials in the mold holes

The tablet press appeared earlier in Europe and America and has a history of nearly 100 years. From 1949 to 1949, the Tianxiang Huaji Iron Works in Shanghai imitated the British-style 33 stamping machine; in 1951, it was converted into a domestic 18 stamping machine according to the 16 stamping machine in the United States. This was the earliest domestic pharmaceutical machinery ; In 1957, the ZP25-4 tablet press was designed and manufactured. In 1960, the 60-30 tablet press was designed and manufactured by itself. It has the functions of automatic rotation and tablet pressing. The pressed varieties include tablets, sugar tablets, and calcium tablets. , Coffee tablets, etc. In the same year, ZP33 and ZP19 tablet presses were designed and manufactured.

In the 1970s, Shanghai No. 1 Pharmaceutical Machinery Factory (predecessor of Shanghai Tianxiang) and Shandong Medical Equipment Factory began to produce ZP series tablet presses in large numbers as fixed-point manufacturers of tablet presses. During the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" period, the 206 HZP26 of the Ministry of Aerospace

The current development direction of foreign tablet press technology is towards intelligent,

1. Punch and die: Punch and die are the basic components of a tablet press. As shown in Figure 14-7 (a), each pair of dies is composed of three parts: upper punch, middle punch, and under punch. The structure of the upper and lower punches is similar, and the diameters of the punches are also equal. The upper and lower punches are matched with the die holes of the die, and can slide freely up and down in the die holes, but there is no gap that can leak the powder . The die processing size is a uniform standard size and is interchangeable. The specifications of the die are expressed by the diameter of the punch or the diameter of the die. Generally, it is 5.5-12mm. Each 0.5mm is a specification, and there are 14 specifications.

The punch and die are subjected to a large amount of pressure during the tabletting process. Bearing steel (such as crl5, etc.) is usually made and heat treated to increase its hardness.

There are many types of punches, and the shape of the punch depends on the desired shape of the tablet. According to the shape of the die structure, it can be divided into round and special shapes (including polygons and curved shapes); the shape of the cross section of the punch includes flat, beveled, shallow concave, deep concave and comprehensive shapes. Flat and beveled punches are used to press flat cylindrical tablets, shallow concave is used to press biconvex tablets, deep concave is mainly used to press the chips of coated tablets, and comprehensive shape is mainly used to press Shaped sheet. In order to easily identify and take medicines, marks such as medicine name, dose, and vertical and horizontal lines can also be carved on the end face of the die. To compress tablets of different doses, a die of appropriate size should be selected.

2. Working process of tablet press

The working process of the tablet press can be divided into the following steps:

The punched part of the punch (its working position is facing up) extends from the lower end of the die hole into the die hole and seals the bottom of the die hole;

Fill the meso-mold with medicine by using the adder;

The punched part of the upper punch (its working position is facing downward) falls from the upper end of the middle die hole into the middle die hole, and travels downward for a certain distance to press the medicine powder into tablets;

The upper punch lifts the hole, the lower punch lifts the tablet out of the die hole, and completes the tabletting process;

Down to the original position and prepare for the next filling.

3. Principle of tableting mechanism

Control of dosage. Various tablets have different dosage requirements. Large dose adjustment is achieved by selecting punches with different punch diameters, such as 6mm, 8mm, 11.5mm, 12mm and other punches. After the die size is selected, the minor dose adjustment is to adjust the depth of the lower punch extending into the die hole, thereby changing the actual length of the die hole after the back cover, and adjusting the filling volume of the drug in the die hole. Therefore, the tablet press should have a mechanism to adjust the original position of the punch in the die hole to meet the dose adjustment requirements. Because there is always a difference in specific volume in the preparation of different batches of medicinal powder, this adjustment function is very necessary.

In the dose control, the action principle of the feeder also has a considerable impact. For example, when the granular medicine relies on its own weight and rolls freely into the middle mold hole, its filling condition is relatively loose. If multiple forced intrusive methods are used, more drugs will be filled in the die hole, and the filling situation will be more dense.

Control of tablet thickness and compaction. The dosage of the drug is determined by prescription and pharmacopoeia and cannot be changed. For storage, storage, and disintegration time requirements, a certain amount of pressure is required during tablet compression, which will also affect the actual thickness and appearance of the tablet. Pressure regulation during tableting is essential. This is achieved by adjusting the amount of down punch in the die hole. Some tablet presses not only have upward punching and downward movement during the tabletting process, but also have downward punching upward movement, and the tablet pressing process is completed by the relative motion of the upward and downward punching. But most of the pressure adjustment is achieved through the mechanism of adjusting the amount of up and down to achieve pressure adjustment and control.