The influence of plate design on the properties of pellets produced by extrusion and spheronization

The aim of this work was to produce pellets using a standard formulation by means of extrusion and spheronization. Three different spheroniser friction plate patterns (i.e. cross-hatch, radial, striated edge pattern) have been used in order to investigate whether the plate pattern affects physical properties of the pellets such as pellet size distribution, yield, shape, mechanical strength, density and drug dissolution. Extrusion was performed with a screen extruder and the screen size was varied to determine whether the extrudate produced could affect the physical properties of pellets. The plate load was also varied. Diclofenac sodium was chosen as a model drug. The pattern of the friction plate used in the spheronization of extrudates affected the properties of the pellets. Yield values varied by up to 20%, and for an otherwise optimised formulation the use of a striated edge plate appeared advantageous in this respect. However, these pellets had a reduced mechanical strength despite their lower porosity, which might be disadvantageous. In addition, other factors such as the amount of extrudate loaded into the spheroniser, the maintenance of a constant moisture content within the spheroniser and the size of the extruder screen influenced these findings significantly. The only physical property of the pellets that did not respond to the various changes in the manufacturing process of the pellets is the pellet shape, which remained spherical. The dissolution of the drug appeared to be related to the median pellet size and was only marginally affected by changes in the spheronization process.