ABSTRACT
All tablets are made by compressing a particulate solid between two punches in a die of a tablet press. There are three methods of tablet manufacture designed to confer these essential attributes to a tablet formulation. Wet granulation and direct compression are the most important, with dry granulation used in some circumstances. A wide range of substances is or has been marketed as direct compression tablet diluents. The simplicity of the direct compression process should obviously bring financial benefits. A faulty batch of tablets can sometimes be recovered by grinding up the tablets and recompressing them, a process which is known as reworking and is analogous to the dry granulation method of tablet manufacture. A fundamental property of a solid is the mechanism by which it consolidates under the influence of a compressing force. Direct compression diluents are often commonly occurring substances which have been physically modified to give the necessary degree of fluidity and compressibility.
