Advantages and disadvantages of dry granulation process

Roller compactor is also know as dry granulator, it is one of the most important granulating machines in the granulation process. Today we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of dry granulation process.

Advantages of dry granulation process

Dry granulation has a lot of advantages over other methods of processing raw materials, such as:

• The process doesn't use any liquid or solvent, suitable for moisture-sensitive APIs or excipients.
• This method does not involve the drying stage, so it is ideal for processing heat-sensitive materials.
• A better granular blend helps prevent caking or clumping. Also, such a blend makes it easier to transfer the material to processes further down the production line. And compaction and milling in the dry granulation process are essential to transform bulky substances into the desired particle size.
• The method makes compacted and milled powder easier to compress during tableting.
• The process can adjust the compaction force and milling process parameters. This helps control the granule hardness and particle size.
• It is a scalable process, allowing operations to be carried out in either a batch or a continuous fashion. Its versatility makes it ideal for scaling up material processing applications from lab to commercial production.
• The process only requires a roller compactor, mill, sieve, feeder, and discharging equipment. So, it generally takes up much less space than other processing methods.
• Since the method doesn't require liquid binders and additional drying operations, it helps cut down on the costs of materials, labor, and energy use.
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Disadvantages of dry granulation

Yet, even though dry granulation is a tried-and-true method, it has drawbacks.

• The major disadvantage of the method is that it makes a higher percentage of fines or non-compacted particles. This can lower the quality of the final product.
• The process is not suitable for all materials. The powder blend to be granulated must have the desired compressibility to form a compact mass under pressure.
• The roller compaction method requires a piece of specialized heavy-duty equipment.
• The process tends to produce friable tablets.
• It creates a significant amount of dust, which may lead to cross-contamination.