DEM based investigation of powder packing in 3D printing of pharmaceutical tablets

3D printing is emerging as one of the most promising methods to manufacture Pharmaceutical dosage forms it offers multiple advantages such personalization forms, polypill, fabrication complex etc. came into existence in 1980s but its use was extended recently pharmaceutical industry along with approval first printed tablet Spritam by FDA 2015. manufactured Aprecia pharmaceuticals using binder jetting technology. Binder jet involves a hopper for powder discharge and printheads ink jetting. The properties tablets are highly dependent upon quality mixture from ink/binder solution printhead nozzle. In this study, numerical models were developed Discrete element method (DEM) gain better understanding process. DEM modeling performed in-house code study effect raw material attributes bed packing density (i.e. particle size, etc) on process, especially during preparation. This model further validated experimentally, demonstrated good agreement experimental results.