Investigation of the bonding mechanisms in agglomerates and compacts to enable next-generation formulated product design

粉末压实广泛应用于几个工业部门，如陶瓷，电池，洗涤剂，食品和制药。片剂最常用的方法是直接压缩粉末或压缩颗粒状中间体。在生产过程、运输和保质期中，片剂必须具有足够的物理强度，以保持片剂的质量，防止断裂、磨损和脱落。目前，这类片剂配方的设计是通过对配方变体进行耗时的反复试验来完成的。由于可以实际进行的此类实验数量有限，很容易得出没有真正优化的配方。提出了一种机制方法来更好地理解实现和维持片剂完整性所涉及的力/键。在过去的几十年里，已经进行了许多与粉末压实剂的结合机制有关的研究，每个研究都得出了不同的、往往相互矛盾的结论。这突出了挑战，并支持了一种更基本的配方设计方法的建议，以期增加配方产品“正确的第一次”开发和制造的可能性。阿斯利康希望在更好地理解基本粘合机制的基础上，开发一种全面的方法来制定产品设计。这种方法的预期好处将是减少开发时间，提高产品质量和制造过程的健壮性。

Powder compaction is widely used in several industrial sectors, such as ceramics, batteries, detergents, food, and pharmaceuticals. Tablets are most commonly made by either direct compression of powder or compression of a granular intermediate. Adequate physical strength of tablets is essential to maintain the quality of tablets by resisting fracture, abrasion, and chipping during manufacturing processes, transportation and shelf life. Currently the design of such tablet formulations is done by time-consuming trial-and-error experiments of formulation variants. Due to limitations in the number of such experiments that can be realistically performed, it is easy to arrive at formulations that are not truly optimised. A mechanistic approach to better understand the forces/bonds involved in achieving and maintaining tablet integrity is proposed. There have been many studies carried out over the last few decades related to bonding mechanisms involved in powder compacts, each reaching different and often conflicting conclusions. This highlights the challenge and supports the proposal for a more fundamental approach to formulation design with a view to increasing the possibility of 'right first time' development and manufacture of formulated products.AstraZeneca would like to develop a holistic approach to formulated product design based on better understanding of fundamental bonding mechanisms. The anticipated benefits of such an approach would be reduced development times, increased product quality and robustness of manufacturing processes.