Measurement of the stickiness of powders of antibiotics

Abstract

In a number of technological processes the strength properties of powders, with characterize a powder as a whole as a physicochemical system, are of great importance. An important strength characteristic is the resistance of the powder to breakdown -stickiness. This characteristic is very important for process of the packing of powders into bottles that are widely used in the antibiotics industry. Stickiness may also be important for grinding, sieving, granulation, and other processes. The principle of measuring stickiness consists in the application of a force increasing with time directed to breaking down a column of powder, and measuring this force at the moment of breakdown. Various designs of instruments for determining the stickiness of powders based on the use of this principle have been described in the literature [1-4]. The aim of the present work was to determine the stickiness of pharmaceutical powders and to estimate the stickiness of some commercial antibiotics powders. In view of the fact that in a number of cases antibiotics are additionally ground during the production process, we measured the stickiness of powders obtained by jet grinding and also by grinding in an agate ball mill.