Prof. Dr. Ingunn Tho, Department of Pharmacy, University of Tromsø
Prof. Dr. Annette Bauer-Brandl, University of Southern Denmark

The motivation for the work is to understand the deformation behaviour of materials in order to develop rational tablet formulation tools.

The first prerequisite for such approach is to collect accurate data. Therefore we constructed our own device, which gives us time-resolved data on force and tablet height. The device is driven by an electromechanical screw press that can do constant punch velocity, but also pre-defined profiles. Upon careful calibration, displacement data are of an accuracy of ± 1 μm.

These data are used for parameterisation of the compression events, as well as information about the tableted material itself and the properties of the tablets is collected.

In order to understand the complex process of deformation and tablet formation, all this information needs to be evaluated simultaneously. Multivariate Analysis has proven a useful tool for this.

We shall illustrate our approach how to use Principal Component Analysis to find differences and similarities as well as rules connected to both model excipients for mapping the parameter space as well as studying subtypes of similar materials and blends thereof. Furthermore, we shall illustrate how to use the chemometric methods for modelling and to predict tablet properties.