AFFECT OF GRANULE SIZES, TYPES AND CONCENTRATIONS OF LUBRICANTS AND COMPRESSION FORCES ON TABLET PROPERTIES

By using five different sieve sizes of ascorbic acid granules, affects of granule sizes on tablet properties, i.e. tablet weight and hardness have been studied with standard methods. Affects of lubricant types and concentrations on tablet properties, i.e. tablet hardness and disintegration time have also been studied by using magnesium stearate and sodium stearyl fumarate as the lubricants for producing tablets from mixed sizes granules of ascorbic acid. Moreover, affects of high, moderate or medium and low compression forces on tablet hardness and disintegration time have been studied by using the mixed sizes granules of ascorbic acid. The result reveals that medium sized granules are better than smaller or larger granules to produce tablets within the specificity. Tablet weight variation has been found as higher during the production of tablets from smaller or larger granules. Production of tablets without lubricants has been complicated due to the difficulties in tablet ejection, resulting in picking, sticking, capping and cracking of tablets, higher tablet hardness and lower disintegration time. With increasing concentration of lubricants, tablet hardness has been found to be decreased, whereas disintegration time has been observed to be increased. The order of sensitivity of the granules has been found as 3% > 5% > 0.25% for magnesium stearate and 5% > 0.25 > 3% for sodium stearyl fumarate. Increased tablet hardness and disintegration time have been observed for the increase in compression forces