Wet granulation is a process to assemble particles into a “granule” with improved flow, reduced dust, and other desirable properties. This talk will include an overview of wet granulation, where a spray is added to an agitated powder bed, and recent advances, including the nucleation and granule growth regime maps. These quantitative tools answer two key questions:
1. What do we know about achieving good liquid distribution?
2. What do we know about why different formulations and materials granule differently?
The information provided can be directly applied to understanding, trouble-shooting and scaling-up granulation processes.
(zipped Quicktime movie file)

Dr Karen Hapgood holds a BE and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland. After completing her Ph.D. work on wet granulation, Dr. Hapgood joined Merck & Co, USA where she worked on designing and scaling up manufacturing processes for solid oral dosage forms, and troubleshooting worldwide manufacturing problems. She spent 12 months at Merck’s Sydney site supporting daily manufacture, until 2006 when she began her current position at Monash University, as a Senior Lecturer in Dept. Chemical Engineering, where she continues to work on granulation research.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Karen P Hapgood (2010), "Wet granulation: Understanding granule formation and growth," https://pharmahub.org/resources/385.

  BibTex | EndNote

1. Drop penetration time
2. Granulation
3. Induction
4. Nucleation
5. Spray flux