Measurement of the adhesive force of fine particles on tablet surfaces and method of their removal

The adhesion force of fine particles on the surface of tablets was measured by a centrifugal force and impact separation method. A Finededuster (FDD) was employed to remove fine particles from the tablet surface. The centrifugal force and impact separation method was suggested to be effective for measuring the adhesive forces between particles and the tablet surface, and effective disjoining force in the FDD could be estimated by comparison of the results obtained using these two methods. The FDD showed high removal efficiency regardless of how many tablets were processed at the same time. In either of these methods, critical particle size was about 10-20 mu m, and larger particles were removed more efficiently. This critical particle size was similar to that observed for other mechanical properties of powders, such as angle of repose and flowability. We simulated particle residual percentage under various operation conditions by ANN (artificial neural network) analysis and multiple regression analysis. This simulation enabled us to predict how the efficiency of particle removal is affected by the interaction of the experimental and material factors.