Manufacturers use tablet presses to produce a variety of products, such as pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, veterinary products, confectionary products, and industrial tablets. Each industry faces unique challenges depending on the properties inherent to the formulations that industry uses. A variety of steel types and coatings, tool-design modifications and options, and tablet designs can work together to

Rushing A Product to Market Can Yield Some Expensive and Painful Lessons When scaling a new drug formulation from development into manufacturing, there is often a reality check regarding process scale-up and formulation performance at production levels. Problems with capping/lamination and sticking/picking are often first realized when a formulation is introduced to a level of

This article originally ran in the October 2018 issue of European Pharmaceutical Manufacturer magazine. By Jonathan Gaik, Natoli Scientific Tablet formulation development is a stylised process. Each formulator uses their own methodology. Some use the systematic Design of Experiments (DOE) approach, some test one variable at a time, and many use a combination of the two. However, all

By Jonathan Gaik, Director, Natoli Scientific In the July/August issue of EPM magazine, I wrote that most challenges in the tableting process initiate with or can be traced back to powder flow. I mentioned in my article – “Go with the flow: The critical issue of powder flow in tablet production” – that conducting studies

This article originally ran in the July/August 2018 issue of European Pharmaceutical Manufacturer magazine. By Jonathan Gaik, Natoli Scientific The ideal active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) is one that flows well, is stable, self-lubricates, compacts well and is not strain rate sensitive. While all the listed properties are important, the one that continues to be critical

The principal purpose for segment alignment is to allow the capsules to be separated reliably and rejoined accurately. To do this, the hole in the upper segment must be accurately lined up with the lower segment, and the segment surfaces must be parallel. Before Aligning Segments Before aligning segments, the lower segment is placed on

This post shares content from an article in Contract Pharma. Click here for the full article. The pharmaceutical industry has seen a number of changes in the more than 40 years Natoli Engineering has been a major manufacturer of tablet compression tooling. From medical advances to the continued growing trend to outsource pharmaceutical manufacturing, the solid dose

This article originally published in Tablets and Capsules’ “Solid Dose Digest” sent July 25, 2016. Industry experts have long debated the best tooling for tablet manufacturing. To understand why their opinions differ, you must first understand the history of the punch. In this edition of the column, I show that the standard head flat has

Choosing the right tooling can increase tablet output, decrease waste and ultimately determine the success of a product launch. Assemble the Right Team First Generally, a tablet starts as a concept in a company’s marketing department without serious consideration of how it will be manufactured. If the marketing staff does not understand what’s feasible in

For a number of years the buzz around continuous manufacturing as the next big leap in pharmaceutical manufacturing has grown. From companies looking for greater efficiency in their processes to governmental regulations enacting changes, the tableting industry has been working hard on solving this puzzle. While the theories of how a company can enact these