First, we conducted a Heckel Test on the formulation provided by the customer, to understand the material properties of the APIs. We do this to understand the fundamental compaction properties of the API. We only required a 5 g sample to conduct this testing.
The second stage was to complete Tabletability testing to assess the performance of one formulation. The formulation was assessed over a range of forces at fast speed to predict scale-up success, using a press simulation profile and 10 mm flat-faced tooling.
The formulation was also tested at a slow speed to assess the effects of speed and investigate elastic recovery in the formulation. A sample size of 25 g was required for this section of the testing process.
Our client also asked us to complete additional further work, on the same product but with different formulations to compare the results with the data from the earlier report.
The formulation showed poor compression properties without lubrication. Without lubrication capping and lamination was seen and would have struggled during production. When lubrication was added to the formulation the strength was better and would be able to withstand manufacture. We were able to save the customer time and money during the manufacturing phase by running the tests they requested.