The mechanisms of compaction

Production of a powder tablet, compact, or briquette can be carried out by a number of techniques. Each method results in the manufacture of different types of products with respect to size, shape, and physical properties. However, all have in common a basic compaction mechanism. 

With brittle materials, the stress applied at interparticle contacts will cause fracture followed by rearrangement of the fragments to yield a reduced volume (B.2). 

Stages B.l and B.2 continue until the compact density approaches the true density of the material. Compression of elastic particles and of entrapped air will take place at all stages of the compaction process. 

The mechanisms discussed may occur simultaneously. The relative importance of the various mechanisms and the order in which they happen depend on the properties of the particles and on the speed of densification. 

These variations are present in products from all pressure agglomeration techniques and lead to a weakening of the compact. If a sintering step follows, distortion is possible due to differences in the amount of contraction occurring at the positions of different density (see also sections 4.2.2.3.5 and 4.2.2.5). 

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Instrumented tablet presses with computer interfaces allow the pharmaceutical scientist to study the mechanism of compaction and the relationship of the mechanism to tablet-compaction properties and formulations. In addition, automated systems are useful to develop compression profiles for reference purposes, to control weight of tablets during development and production, and to monitor punch wear. This automation reduces the burden on personnel faced with the requirements of quality control. Merck Sharp and Dohme s major production facility in the United Kingdom is fully computerized to manufacture a high-volume tablet product as well as multiple-tablet products. " ... 

The deformation behavior of many pharmaceutical materials is time-dependent and the nature of this time dependency is often related to the mechanism of compaction for a given material. It is thought that time dependency or speed sensitivity arises from the viscoelastic or viscoplastic characteristics of a material. In contrast, studies have shown that brittle materials are much less speed dependent that ductile materials because yielding and fragmentation are not as dependent on the rate of compression. It is also believed that the particle size and size distribution of the powder or granules have an important role in the speed sensitivity due to the fact that this property affects the predominant mechanism of deformation (6,58-60). 

Last is that the mechanism of compact failure also depends on strain rate. Figure 21-118 illustrates schematically the crack behavior observed in compacts as a function of capillary number. At low Ca, compacts fail by brittle fracture with macroscopic crack propagation, whereas at high Ca, compacts fail by plastic flow, which is more desirable to promote growth. 

Allen, D.R., and Mayuga, M.N. 1969. The mechanics of compaction and rebound, Wilmington Oil Field, Long Beach, California, USA. In International Symposium on Land Subsidence, Tison, L.J., ed.. International Association of Hydrological Sciences, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 410 22. 

Light, sandy, well-drained soil of high electrical resistivity is low in corrosivity and coated steel or bare stainless steels can be employed. It is unlikely that the whole pipe run would be in the same type of soil. In heavier or damp soils, or where the quality of back filling cannot be guaranteed, there are two major corrosion risks. Steel, copper alloys and most stainless steels are susceptible to sulfide attack brought about by the action of sulfate-reducing bacteria in the soil. SRB are ubiquitous but thrive particularly well in the anaerobic conditions which persist in compacted soil, especially clay. The mechanism of corrosion where SRB are involved is described in Section... 

Thus, we considered a number of examples of application of the sensor technique in experiments on heterogeneous recombination of active particles, pyrolysis and photolysis of chemical compounds in gas phase and on the surface of solids, such as oxides of metals and glasses. The above examples prove that, in a number of cases, compact detectors of free atoms and radicals allow one to reveal essential elements of the mechanisms of the processes under consideration. Moreover, this technique provides new experimental data, which cannot be obtained by other methods. Sensors can be used for investigations in both gas phase and adsorbed layers. This technique can also be used for studying several types of active particles. It allows one to determine specific features of distribution of the active particles along the reaction vessel. The above experiments demonstrate inhomogeneity of the reaction mixture for the specified processes and, consequently, inhomogeneity of the... 

The nature of the solvent influences both the structure of the polymer in solution and its dynamics. In good solvents the polymer adopts an expanded configuration and in poor solvents it takes on a compact form. If the polymer solution is suddenly changed from good to poor solvent conditions, polymer collapse from the expanded to compact forms will occur [78], A number of models have been suggested for the mechanism of the collapse [79-82], Hydrodynamic interactions are expected to play an important part in the dynamics of the collapse and we show how MPC simulations have been used to investigate this problem. Hybrid MD-MPC simulations of the collapse dynamics have been carried out for systems where bead-solvent interactions are either explicitly included [83] or accounted for implicitly in the multiparticle collision events [84, 85]. 

ITMs provide a valuable service to all phases of tablet manufacture, from research to production and quality control [109 111]. As a research tool, ITMs allow in-depth study of the mechanism of tablet compaction by measuring the forces that develop during formation, ejection, and detachment of tablets. ITMs can also provide clues about how materials bond,... 

Abstract Optical microcavities trap light in compact volumes by the mechanisms of... 

The mechanism of densification begins with individnal particle motion at low pressnre before interparticle bonding becomes extensive. At higher pressures, the compact... 

Stress-strain type equations have been developed for the compaction process, which help provide an understanding of the mechanisms involved in forming a tablet, as well as allowing for the prediction of compaction results. This predictive power of the compaction process is the basis for many scale-up approaches. However, there are compression and consolidation process aspects which are dependent on manufacturing scale, e.g., speed-sensitive materials, and this results in many problems encountered in transferring a technology to production scale. Unfortunately, these scale-sensitive processes have not been as extensively studied, and are less understood. 

The use of compaction simulators was first reported in 1976. Since then, a variety of simulators have been developed. Hydraulic simulators, as well as mechanical simulators, are available to characterize raw materials, drug substances, and formulations, as well as to predict material behavior on scale-up. The appeal of simulators is due to the fact that they purport to provide the same compaction profile as experienced on a tablet press while using only gram or even milligram quantities of powders. Compaction simulators can achieve high speeds, as would be experienced on a production tablet press, and can be instrumented to measure a variety of parameters, including upper and lower punch force, upper and lower punch displacement, ejection force, radial die wall force, take-off force, etc. Summaries on the uses of simulators and tablet press instrumentation can be found in (19,20). 

Several processes for the formation of compacts have been proposed as it will be evident that links or bonds can only form across adjacent surfaces. Some of these mechanisms for bond formation are... 

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