ABSTRACT
Compressing powders into a more solid mass dates back thousands of years. It was not
until the early 1800s that tablet compression was automated in the sense the hand crank
was replaced by a leather belt and a steam driven power bar. These early single station
tablet presses were able to produce on an average 100 tablets per minute while meeting
the guidelines of tablet uniformity for hardness, thickness, and weight. Soon after, single
station presses were fading and making room for new technology, the rotary tablet press.
Introduced in the mid-1800s, the rotary tablet press boasted speeds capable of com-
pressing 1200 tablets per minute. Today, tablet presses are able to compress over 24,000
tablets per minute, and at the rate of new technology, it will surely increase (Fig. 1).
