Granulation with Dow Cellulosic Polymers II. High Shear Granulation

products; the amount of fines was
about 25% at the lower binder level.
Increasing binder causes a small
decrease in the 20 mesh material,
but a significant increase in the 40
and 60 mesh granules at the expense
of the fines. In other words,
METHOCEL K3P LV showed a
somewhat more classical shift in PSD
with binder level.
The PSD of the HPC products were
very similar (Figure 38). Here,
increasing binder concentration
caused a decrease in the quantity of
granules < 80 mesh, but gave a very
large fraction that was retained on 40
mesh screen.
The performance of PVP (K29-32)
(Figure 39) was unusual in that upon
increasing the binder level, all of the
sieve fractions except that retained on
20 mesh and the fines remained the
same. At 6%, there was less material
at 20 mesh and more fines than at
3% binder. The PVP (K90) also
showed an increase in fines at the
higher binder level. Finally, Figure 40
compares the PSD for METHOCEL
K3P LV and PVP (K29-32), two
binders that will be further compared
later in this section.
Tablet Physical Properties
The hardness and friability values of
the methazolamide tablets
compressed at 2000 lbs. total
compression force are given in Table
10. For both measurements, 20
tablets were used; the reported
friabilities are those after 4 minutes in
a Roche friabilator.
Acceptably hard tablets were
produced with all binders, with the
possible exception of METHOCEL
E15P LV, having values ≈ 6 SCU (but
note the % friability). For the
METHOCEL products, the hardest
tablets by a fairly wide margin were
produced when METHOCEL K3P LV
at 3% was utilized. In fact, for 3 of the
5, the tablets at 3% were softer from
a statistical standpoint; only for
High Shear Granulation: Methazolamide Model
23