Which Tablet Press Machine is best for your business?
Tablet presses have been used in the pharmaceutical industry for years to produce the tablets and medicines you’ll see every day in store. However, there has recently been a massive growth over the past 30 years in homeopathic remedies, dietary supplements and products that support fitness regimes.
Tablet presses, as well as capsule fillers, are now extensively used in a wide variety of product manufacture from CBD-based remedies to cleaning products and cosmetics. We’ve also found that many smaller contract research boutiques, that serve big pharma, use smaller tablet presses to trial small runs in the product development process.
So, how do you choose the best tablet press for your application or business? Where do you start as there are so many options available? This decision is down to volume, resources, and budget.
Essentially there are two types of tablet press machine which can broadly be divided into:-
- Desktop or Tablet Desktop Presses
- Automated or High-Speed Rotary Tablet Presses
Tabletop or Tablet Desktop Presses
These comprise the simplest tableting equipment and are also known as also known as single punch presses or Tablet Desktop Presses. They can be operated manually or can be powered by an electric motor – often both. This type of machine is robust, really simple to operate but can also manufacture tablets with odd shapes – depending on the moulds you choose.
Being extremely easy to control and load, Tablet Desktop Presses are perfect for the production of small batches of formulations. They are often used in research laboratories when small batches need to be produced for product testing or small sample trials. Bespoke supplement manufactures also like them for testing the market. This is to prove viability before investing in equipment that would be required to support mass market induction.
So, if all you need is a machine that will produce nice consistently pressed tablets at a rate of 2-5000 per hour, then a single punch Tablet Desktop Press will be perfect for your operation.
High Speed Rotary Tablet Presses
Also referred to as multi station tablet presses, the high-speed rotary tablet press is the staple piece of kit for producing tablets in volume within the pharmaceutical industry. While the entry cost is relatively high, compared with a single punch press, the return on investment in high volume production ventures can be really fast for an automated machine.
Depending on the configuration of the machine, a rotary tablet press will produce perfectly formed tablets in the millions per hour. Being fully automated and controlled, the high-speed rotary tablet press ensures total consistency and highly accurate tableting.
How to select the best machine for your needs?
Our advice would be to look at the market for your formulation and be realistic about volume expectations before you make your equipment selection. If you can expect only small-scale production, perhaps with a premium product or trial runs, then a single press machine will be totally suitable. In this category there are many suppliers who can offer manual tablet presses that offer a range of functionality.
However, if you are expecting larger production runs from the outset, the multi station automated tablet press would be a better choice. When investing in a more sophisticated machine, its also worth considering future volumes, should you need to support growth in the market, as well as perhaps a range of tablet shapes and sizes that might direct your tooling choice.
Often you will find that a tablet press supplier can offer you a trade in deal for your single punch Tablet Desktop Press when you have proved market viability for your formulation and need to scale up production.
