Typical CBD isolate material (powder) has poor flow characteristics and is usually light and fluffy. This unfortunate property makes it difficult to handle and especially challenging when feeding the material to downstream blending operation or a tablet press. Luckily, this challenge is easy to solve, by converting the small fine powder into a larger flowing granule – all without altering the chemical properties of the isolate. Welcome to dry granulation technology.
Dry granulation by roller compaction is a well-established process in pharmaceutical, chemical and life science industry. In pharmaceutical applications, the most common target is to increase the flowability of a powder or powder blend to enable the fast and homogeneous filling of a tablet press. The challenge is to produce tablets of constant weight and sufficient strength, while maintaining an even distribution of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), or in this case, the CBD Isolate powder. This can be achieved by roller compaction for a wide range of products and without the need of additional ingredients such as binders, moisture or lubricants. Furthermore, dry granulation by roller compaction is used to eliminate dust, increase the bulk density, reduce the storage volume, improve handling and manipulate the dissolution properties.
Dry granulation by roller compaction consists of two separate steps. The first step is an agglomeration step, starting From Raw Material Powder to a Flake. The second step is a size reduction step, From Flake to Granulate. Here the flake is milled and reduced to a good flowing granulate by using a Flake Crusher, Pre- and Fine-Granulator. A Detailed view on a Roller Compactor can be seen in Figure 1 and the flow diagram can be seen in Figure 2. You can find a helpful decision making guideline and granulation process video here: https://alexanderwerkinc.com/products/roller-compaction-pharmaceutical/
Figure 1:Detailed view on a Roller Compactor Figure 2: Flow Diagram of a Roller Compactor
Are you curious about what dramatically improving flowability may look like? Check out our YouTube video that shows you the before and after granulation effect of roller compaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk0JPwnzylg&t=2s
We love solving complex compaction and granulation challenges. Please reach out to us: https://alexanderwerkinc.com/contact-us/
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