Roll Compactor - A Complete Description

The engineering behind the making of tablets is dry granulation by Roll Compactor. Roll
Compactor is an integral part of pharmaceutical and bulk drug industry.

Dry granulation is a process that forces the fine powder into solid compacts or sheets. This is
done by a Roll Compactor by passing the fine powder between counter rotating rollers and
press.

What is Dry Granulation?

Dry granulation is basically a dry process which does not involve the usage of any liquid.
Granulation is nothing but the process in which fine particles i.e., powder are made to cling
with each other to form large multi particles called Granules.

Hence dry granulation is the process of making multi particle compacts from powder by
applying force. This force is provided by the roll compactor.

Construction of Roll Compactor-

The major elements are compacting rollers, charging hopper, feed screw and a sieve. The
function of each element of the roll compactor can be anticipated by the process taking place
in a roll compactor. The basic aim is to get multi particle granules and sheets as product.

Process of Granulation-

Mr. Jayesh Khambhayata

+91-98250 10884
First of all the fine particles or powder is fed to the charging hopper from where it is fed to the
compacting zone.

The feeding of the powder to the compacting zone is done with the help of vertical feed screw.
Then at the compacting zone the compacting rollers press the powder. The compacting rollers
force the fine powder into compacts or sheets, also known as chips or flakes.

Further these chips or flakes are resized i.e., reduced to desired shape and size using sizing
machine. The size of chips or flakes can be controlled by a sieve. Depending upon the sieve size
with the help of which different final sizes of compacts can be achieved. A scrapper is provided
in order to ensure that the powder is not sticking the rollers.

Now the doubt arises about the thickness of the flakes. As discussed above the lead screw
feeds pre-defined amount of fine powder in compaction zone. Though amount of powder fed is
responsible for the size, gap between the two counter rollers is also a characteristic. Controlling
the amount of powder is a bit difficult and hence the thickness of the flakes directly depends
on the space between the rollers.

Mr. Jayesh Khambhayata

+91-98250 10884
On the basis of this gap, the roll compactors are classified into two categories, Variable Gap Roll
Compactors and Fixed Gap Roll Compactors. Both of them are almost similar with a difference
in the smallest distance between their rollers.

In Fixed Gap Roll Compactor the force applied on the power bed is not constant for every flake.
This is because the amount of powder fed into the compaction zone may not be consistent.
This results in the fluctuations of properties of the flakes.

In variable or floating gap Roll Compactor, the distance between the rollers keep on changing
depending upon the amount of powder fed. This ensures the forces on the granules equal all
the time, since thickness is important. Hence this minimizes the fluctuation in the properties of
flakes.

Author Bio:

Jayesh Khambhayataworks is CEO of Cemach Machineries Ltd, The India based manufacturer
and exporter of pharmaceutical machinery company offers Roller compactor, Tablet Press
Machine, Tablet D Deduster, Rapid Mixer Granulator, Roll Compactors etc. For More Details
visit the website.

Mr. Jayesh Khambhayata

+91-98250 10884