When developing a tablet, three widely used technologies are often considered to produce solid dosage forms: direct compression, wet granulation and dry granulation. Wet granulation remains the most widely used method, but it has got limitations regarding moisture and heat-sensitive drugs, coupled with costly, labour intensive, and time-consuming processes.
Continuous dry granulation or roller compaction has been a well-established method in the pharmaceutical business for decades, and it is used for more than just moisture and temperature-sensitive products. It offers several advantages to manufacturers such as overall cost-of-goods, energy consumption and/or environmental impact, as well as the potential to scaleup from development to full-scale cGMP commercial production using the same equipment.
Dry Granulation in Different Industries
In the pharmaceutical industry, the dry granulation process is essential for the production of tablets, capsules, pills and effervescent dosage forms. In recent years, dry granulation applications have gained more attention due to their efficiency and the push toward continuous manufacturing.
Dry granulation is used in the food industry to produce a wide variety of products, including: nutritional supplements, vitamins, spices, additives, flavours, soups and sauces.
In recent years, the nutraceutical industry has become increasingly important. In the nutraceutical industry, dry granulation is used to produce dietary supplements, including: multivitamin supplements, herbal extracts, or protein powders. The resulting granules are then compressed into tablets or capsules.
Dry granulation also plays a key role in the chemical industry by improving handling and storage properties, making it the perfect approach for producing non-clumping anticaking agents, food additives and catalysts. It also improves the cleaning performance of detergent powders.
Fertilisers, pesticides and other insecticide powders are routinely processed for agricultural purposes. Thus, dry granulation process is a common practice in agricultural industry. It also improves agricultural powder properties and reduces quality variations.
