True-shape tablet simulations at industrial scale

Tablet coating is a widely used technology in pharmaceutical industry. During this process tablets are covered with a film that fulfils both functional and non-functional purposes. The latter is related to an improved appearance. While the functional purposes include: to protect the tablet core, to mask odor/taste, to control the release of the API, active coating, etc. Uniformity is a critical property to assess the quality of the final product, thus to determine whether the batch will be accepted. Uniformity refers to two aspects: A uniform coating mass distribution among all tablets (inter-tablet uniformity), and a constant film thickness over the surface of a tablet (intra-tablet uniformity). Therefore, the coating process has to be optimized in order to achieve the desired uniformity and reduce the manufacturing costs. Understanding how the different parameters (spray properties, drum geometry, tablet shape, etc.) influence the coating process is a key step in process optimization [1].