Sticking and picking is a common problem during tablet development and manufacture. It occurs when particles of the tablet formulation adhere to the punch face. Using an adhesion punch specifically designed for this application, the risk of sticking of new formulations or to troubleshoot solutions for existing products can be quantified.
Sticking is not specific to the tooling’s embossing as it can occur on any area of the tooling face, whereas picking is generally related to tooling’s embossing and occurs mostly within the logo and island areas.
Picking usually occurs within the “closed” numbers and letters, these numbers are 0,4,6,8, and 9, some of the letters are A, B, D, and e.