ABSTRACT
Symbols 370
Recommended Reading 371
References 372
Particle sizes are often too small to allow good processing into tablets or capsules. Earlier chapters have shown, for instance, that flow can be affected. Dissolution of dosage forms is also affected in a positive way, in that it is more rapid from a large surface area. The first step in dissolution, however, is wetting the surface, and hydrophobic drugs will not wet down easily. The larger the surface, the more difficult (the slower) will the wetting be. These are two reasons for wet-granulating powders for further solids processing. One more reason is that the process, which essentially consists of "gluing" particles together, also aids in forming bonds in tablets, in
which case, the granulating agent is referred to as a binder. Hence, there are three main purposes in wet granulating:
1. Particle enlargement 2. Increasing wettability 3. Adding binder to the particulate solid
21.1. EQUIPMENT It has been noted, for instance in the introduction, that this text does not emphasize the actual machinery involved in solids manufacturing, and that the reader interested in the intricacies of equipment used, for instance, that in wet granulation, are referred to texts such as those listed under Recommended Reading at the end of this chapter.
