What is Solid Dosage form? Types of Solid Dosage Formations and their Applications

Senieer is a leading global Pharmaceutical Equipment Manufacturer And Supplier having different pharmaceutical equipment that are used in drug manufacturing most drugs are solid dosage forms here we have most of the information considering solid dosage forms.

Solid Dosage form

Solid dosage forms of drugs are drugs which are made with materials or which have features present in solid state.

The most common dosage are tablets,powder,capsules,granules,dropping pills and films.

In most cases solid dosage forms are taken through mouth(oral administration)but they can also be taken using other different routes.

Drugs are transformed in solid state because of different reasons.

Here we can state;

1. Solid dosage forms are physically,chemically and biologically stable more than liquid.
2. Most pharmaceutical ingredients are solids that makes them easier and cheaper to formulate them into solid dosage form.
3. It is more convenient to pack,transport and easy to use solid dosage.
4. Patients prefer oral administration so they prefer solid dosage forms

The oral administration(through mouth) is safer than most administration routes.

Tablets :

Tablets are solid dosage forms which contain drugs in different shaped solid preparation. Sometimes due to high volume of powders and granules they are likely being compressed into tablets, because the packaging and transportation of powders and granules are less convenient.

Uses of tablets: –accurate usage

-very good physical and chemical properties

-the cost of manufacturing is very low

-more convenient for transportation

Preparation of tablets:  tableting is the process of compressing powders or granules into the desired shape. The preparation requires flowability, compressibility and well lubricated state. Granulation is the good way to improve flowability and compressibility. Here a granulation line is used as the instrument for granulation process.

Step 1: wet granulation :wet granules are dried and compressed into the preferred shape.

Step 2:dry granulation :dry granulation is used to produce tablets containing water sensitive drugs.

Step 3:powder compression: direct powder compressing doesn’t require granulation. the use of direct compressing has expanded in pharmaceutical industry.

Tableting;

Tablet press here we use single punch tableting machine for pressing the tablet.

Senieer has this equipment called single punch tableting machine and other tableting machines here we can say rotary tablet press machine, high speed tablet press range, automatic salt block pill or tablet press machine. you can contact them for more information by using our website: www.senieer.com

Factors affecting the formation of tablets are the following:

-melting points and crystals

-compression properties of materials

-binders and lubricants

-water

-pressure

Tablet coating

Senieer also has tablet coating machines of different types.

Tablets are coated for different reasons here we can state:to prevent unwanted reactions,to cover bitter taste or bad smell,avoiding to be damage of gastric acids in stomach and enzymes.

Sugar coating and thin film coating are the most common coating techniques.

The picture above is a tablet coating machine.

Capsules: are solid dosage forms mainly for oral use prepared by filling drug powders together with suitable excipients into empty shells.the capsule shell is able to mask undesirable taste or odor, it also protect the capsule from exterior moisture.

Preparation of capsules:

The preparation of capsules includes the identification of appropriate shell,preparation of filling content,filling and encapsulating.empty shells can be purchased from appropriate manufactures.

Empty shells are made of gelatin,plastics and water as well as some colorants,antiseptics and light screening agents.

Gelatin capsules are prone to hardening upon dehydration and reacts with aldehydes. They require controls for storage,humidity and materials for packaging. In order to avoid this problem shells are made from botanical polysaccharides and dietary fibers

The drugs and excipients can also be made into granules before putting them into capsules. To choose a capsule shell we must consider the volume of the content which can be calculated by bulk density and the total weight of the content. After filling capsules are sealed.

Capsules are made by capsule filling machines.

-Dropping method: soft capsules are manufactured by machines equiped with double layer dropping nozzles. the wall gel fluid and drug fluid simultaneously flow out from interior to exterior layer of the double layer nozzle. The wall gel engulfs the drug fluids and the combined material falls into an immiscible cooling fluids,where cooling continues until the wall gel solidifies to form soft capsules.

-Compression methods: in this method a wall gel is first prepared into a gel belt of uniform thickness then the drug fluid is placed between two gel belts and compressed into a mold form of soft capsule.

Senieer has different kinds of capsule filling machine either non automatic, automatic capsule filling machine or semi-automatic .

This machine above is the capsule filling machine. 

Granules: they are dry preparations of a definite particle size,comprised of API’s(Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients)and suitable excipients. Granules are primarily designed for oral administration(mouth)either by direct swallowing or dispersing it in water. There are several categories of granules here we can state soluble granules,effervescent granules,suspending granules,enteric granules,sustained release granules,controlled release granules.

Main advantages of granules are

1. less dust generation, agglomeration tendency and hygroscopicity
2. lower tendency of lamination of the components after granulation
3. better convenience for packaging and transport

Preparation of granules:

Granulation techniques can be classified into wet granulation and dry granulation with wet granulation remaining the common in pharmaceutical industry.

Excipients commonly used in making granules includes diluents and binders as well as disintegrants sometimes.

Diluents that are mostly used are starch,sucrose,lactose and dextrin.

Procedures for the preparation of granules

–Kneading:is the key process in wet granulation. The mixture of drugs and suitable excipients are blended first and kneaded after the addition of binders to obtain wet materials.

–Granulation: in recent years modern granulating techniques such as fluid bed granulation and blending granulation has been used as well.

–Drying: Wet granules produced must be dried immediately to avoid agglomeration and compression induced deformation in fluid bed dryers. Wet granules are dried dynamically ,this process may crush granules but it limits agglomeration.

–Screen and sieving:Dried granules are screened and sieved in order to disperse agglomerated granules and obtain granules of different sizes.

–Quality control and dosage dividing: the sieved granules are sealed in suitable packages after subjecting to analysis of drug content and particle size measurements. Cautions and instructions for granules are the same as powders’ .

Granulation is the technique to process materials as powders,melts,slabs and liquids into granular materials with certain size and shape. This is the key used in production of granules,capsules and tablets. The aim of granulation is to prevent dust generation,improve flowability,increase compressibility and filling properties.  In order to get granules you must have some of the equipment here we can say

–fluid bed dryer for drying wet granules.

–fluid bed granulator Generally here a fluidized state is achieved by placing drug powders and different excipeints into the container.while air of suitable temperatures flows upward through the sieve plate. Upon spraying binders the particles begin to agglomerate. Then the process will continue until the granules of appropriate size and shape is produced.

Senieer has all equipments used in drug manufacturing including those stated above.

For more information about these equipment, you can tell us through our website

Powder: powders are solid dosage forms made from dry crystals and appropriate excipients through comminution and blending. Drugs can be administered orally or locally.

Manufacturing powders is simple by mixing of drug powders with excipients.

Due to simple preparations only diluents are used without the need of granulating or tableting procedures.

Powders are superior to tablets and capsules both in rate of absorption and onset time. Powders are also easily to be divided into smaller doses ,Its also suitable for children and elderly also those ones with swallowing difficulties.

Preparation of powders

-pretreatment of materials: solid materials should be pretreated before comminution. Chemical drugs should be dried. After comminution drug powders should be sieved to meet the particle size requirement,mixed with other components,divided into smaller doses and packaged after inspection before being released. Homogeneous mixing is crucial to ensure the quality of the drug.

-comminution: A process of breaking down a bulk materials into powders of a definite size using mechanical forces.

-sieving: is a procedure to obtain uniform particles by separating particles based on the size of the mesh. This is very important for improving flowability and mixing the materials

-mixing: mixing two or more components to achieve uniformity of drug content.

-dosage dividing,packaging and storage: here powders need to be divided into smaller doses. The volumetric method is usually employed in dividing doses in large scale manufacturing.

In powder making we use this kind of machine below;

A hammer Mill used to manufacture powder.

Senieer has these kinds of equipments and other related equipments.

Dropping pills: are spherical preparation made from drugs and suitable materials by mixing melted state and solidifying by dropping into an immiscible inert cooling media.

Manufacturing dropping pills is related to dropping methods of soft capsules.

Preparation of dropping pills: the preparation is similar to the one of soft capsules using dropping method.