Introduction

This introductory chapter on granulation technology provides the need for granulating powders and discusses the various granulation technologies that can be pursued based on the intended quality attributes of the granulation as well as the final dosage form. The importance of solid dosage forms can be seen in the solid dosage forms approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during the past ten years. The theory of granulation along with spray drying, single pot processing, extrusion spheronization, and dry and wet granulation is briefly discussed. This chapter describes the content of the other chapters in the book that contain Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and raw material and finished granulation characterization and the importance of product-oriented technologies such as orally disintegrating tablets; granulation of nutraceuticals; modified-release products; and emerging particle engineering technologies, such as 3D printing, nanotechnology, and supercritical technology, among others. Scaling up, process modeling, and expert systems are highlighted and the importance of process analytical tools and their prerequisite for continuous or batch processes monitoring and optimization.