Granulating for Nutritional Supplements

Granulating is a way to turn powder into a form that can be made into a tablet or coated and allows for high speed encapsulation. This service is especially helpful for products that do not contain any liquid ingredients. Unlike capsules, in which ingredients are simply stuffed into an empty shell, tablets are actually made up of the ingredients themselves, sometimes finished with a digestible coating. A binder ingredient is also sometimes added.

Granulating makes these tablets possible by forming the powder ingredients and making them cohesive. Generally, granulating is done by one of a few methods, including:

• Granulating by size reduction
• High shear granulation
• Low shear granulation
• Compaction granulation

Of these, compaction granulation requires the least amount of binding agent. Further, compaction granulation usually doesn’t require any drying of the product, unlike wet processes of granulation. The main difference between high shear and low shear granulation is, as the name implies, the speed at which the blending occurs. High shear granulation mixes the ingredients at a much higher rate, while low shear granulation is a much gentler process.

To learn more about granulation for nutritional supplements, call or e-mail Vitarich Laboratories today.