Powder hydrophobicity and flow properties: Effect of feed frame design and operating parameters

Abstract The effect of feed frames, a device used in rotary tablet presses to drive the powders into compression dies, on the properties of the powders entering the dies is systematically described in this article. The work focuses on the effect of blend composition, feed frame parameters (blade speed and residence time), and rotary die disc parameters (die disc speed and die diameter) on powder overlubrication, the flow properties of the blends, and the resulting tablet properties (tablet hardness and dissolution). For lubricated blends, the feed frame had a large impact on powder hydrophobicity and powder flow properties. Hydrophobicity results demonstrated that the shear applied by the feed frame caused overlubrication of the powders, which improved the powder flow properties but affected adversely the tablet hardness and dissolution. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2012