Implementation of an online thermal imaging to study the effect of process parameters of roller compactor.

During roller compaction, not only the properties of the primary powder affect the product quality but also the process parameters. Any change in the process parameters during roller compaction will result in changing the properties of the ribbon. In this study, the temperature of the ribbon during production was monitored online using a thermal camera. The information from the thermal camera was used to explain the differences in ribbon properties at varying process parameters. Lactose powder was used as a primary powder, and ribbons were produced at different process parameters. The surface temperature of the ribbon during production was found to increase with increasing both the gap between the two rollers and the roller speed. This was attributed to the screw feeder speed, which increased to feed additional powder as required to adjust to the change in process parameters. Increasing the roller gap resulted in wider ribbons and decreased the percentage of fines in the product, which was a signature of better powder distribution across the roller width. The results were also supported by the uniform temperature distribution recorded across the ribbon width. It was found that increasing the roller speed during roller compaction decreased the width of the ribbon while increasing the percentage of fines in the product. The feeder screw speed was found to have a similar effect as the roller gap.