Process for manufacturing a compressed product

Abstract

A process is disclosed for the manufacture of a compressed product consisting of a multilayer tablet formed in a single compression operation.

Claims

1. A process for the preparation of a multilayer tablet which comprises: a) filling the upper surface of a mould having recesses designed to form a tablet with layers not having the same surface area, said mould sliding in the compression chamber of a tablet press, with a first particulate material; b) raising the mould until the layer of material is conveyed to the upper extremity of the compression chamber; c) removing the excess particulate material by scraping with a scraper device; d) lowering the mould into the compression chamber and filling with a second particulate material; e) repeating steps b), c) and d) for a number of times corresponding to the number of desired layers of the finished tablet, the layers have different surface areas having a weight ratio of the single layer to the total weight of the product of less than 2%; and f) compressing and ejecting the formed tablet.

2. A process according to claim 1 wherein at least one layer has a weight ratio of less than 25% of the weight of the finished product.

3. A process according to claim 2 wherein the layers having different surface areas have a weight ratio of the single layer to the total weight of the product of less than 2%.

4. The process according to claim 1, wherein said desired layers formed in said step e) have different surface areas and different active ingredients.

Description

(1) The invention is illustrated in greater detail in the following example.

Example 1

(2) A mould characterised by the presence of grooves/recesses is used in a tablet press commonly used for tablet production in the pharmaceutical and food industries. Said mould and the recesses/grooves are designed to produce specific layers which may, if necessary, be small and/or of a particular shape, and in particular those layers that define the eyes and muzzle of a cow's head (FIG. 2).

(3) Mould (7) falls into compression chamber (6) of the tablet press to the desired depth (8) of 0 mm, and the hollows are filled with 70 mg of a mixture of powdered sorbitol, aspartame, flavouring, magnesium stearate and blue colouring. At this stage only the mouth and eyes of the future cow are filled.

(4) Mould (7) remains at the 0 mm level (9), and scraper device (10) is activated to remove the excess powder (11) on the upper part of the flat surface of the mould.

(5) When the mould is subsequently filled, it falls back into compression chamber (6) of the tablet press to the desired depth (12) of 6 mm, and the compression chamber is filled with 630 mg of a mixture of powdered sorbitol, aspartame, flavouring and magnesium stearate.

(6) Upper punch (13) falls into compression chamber (6), applying a pressure of 15 Pa to form the 700 mg tablet, wherein the cow's eyes and mouth are coloured and the rest of the tablet is white.

(7) Upper punch (13) rises to the original position, mould (7) rises to floor level (9), and the tablet is ejected.