WORLD JOURNAL OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES P.Ramasubramaniyan et al. Volume 2, Issue 6, 5412-5418. Research Article ISSN 2278 4357 EQUIPMENT QUALIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF TABLET COMPRESSION MACHINE P.Ramasubramaniyan*, N.Sharanya, Palanichamy.S, T.Srinag, P.Pavani, Solairaj.P Department of Pharmaceutics, Sankaralingam Bhuvaneswari College of Pharmacy, Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, India. Article Received on 16 August 2013, Revised on 15 Sept 2013, Accepted on 05 November 2013 *Correspondence for Author: * Dr. P. Ramasubramaniyan, Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, Sankaralingam Bhuvaneswari College of Pharmacy, Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, INDIA. ramskit@yahoo.com ABSTRACT Qualification an ideal step for equipment validation is the action undertaken to demonstrate the intended use and performance of the utilities and equipment. The individual steps of qualification such as design, installation, operational and performance qualification were done in order to qualify the equipment. Blue print of equipment validation was also included. In this article the compression parameters such as compression force, turret rpm and feeder rpm were studied. The process capability of the equipment was studied by observing the weight of 20 tablets, disintegration time, friability, individual weight variation, thickness and hardness. These parameters were studied at three different speeds and the best results were obtained at the optimum speed (40 rpm). KEYWORDS: Qualification, validation, design, installation, operational, performance, compression INTRODUCTION Qualification: It refers to activities undertaken to demonstrate that utilities and equipment are suitable for their intended use and perform properly. The individual qualification steps are defined as follow: Design Qualification (DQ): It is the documented verification that the proposed design of the facilities, systems and equipment is suitable for the intended purpose. www.wjpps.com 5412
Installation Qualification (IQ): It is documented evidence that the premises, supporting utilities, the equipment have been built and installed in compliance with design specifications. Operational Qualification (OQ): In this phase the process parameters are challenged to assure that product meets all defined requirements under all anticipated conditions of manufacturing, i.e., worst case testing. Performance Qualification (PQ): The performance qualification is carried out to establish the performance and efficiency of the tablet machine during tablet compression operation. The key objective of this phase is to demonstrate that the process will produce acceptable product under normal operating conditions. A Typical Validation Blueprint of Equipment Validation: 1. Installation qualification Facilities Utilities Equipment 2. Operation qualification Testing Protocols for Utilities and Equipment 3. Validation Testing protocols for products and cleaning systems 4. Documentation 5. Validation of the QA testing laboratory 6. SOPs 7. Training of personnel 8. Organization charts, Schedule of events The main aim and objective of this research is to qualify the equipment based on its process capability by observing the compression parameters. METHODOLOGY Execution of Design Qualification Documentation and verification of procedures required to fulfill the protocol. Execution of protocol and data collection, interpretation and review of data for accuracy, completeness and cgmp compliance. Approval of original protocol formats, approval for the final summaries and system qualification statement. www.wjpps.com 5413
Execution of IQ, OQ and PQ: It includes the development and approval of an IQ, OQ, PQ protocols followed by the performance of IQ, OQ, PQ. The further step includes the workout and approval of IQ, OQ, PQ reports. Procedure Followed for Performance Qualification: The blend/dummy material was unloaded into the hoppers on the both sides and the compression machine was operated at low speed (20RPM) as per operating instructions. Then the machine was set to run for 20 utes continuously after adjusting the following parameters. 1. Individual tablet weight variation 2. Weight of 20 tablets 3. Hardness 4. Thickness 5. Disintegration time, Friability Then the experiment was repeated at both medium (40RPM) and high speed (60RPM) with same set of parameters and the parameters were checked at different speeds (low, medium and high rpm). The results were reported. Sampling Plan Collect 100 tablets for every 05 utes. RESULTS & DISCUSSION TABLE No. 1: Speed: Medium (40rpm) Feeder rpm: LHS: 52, RHS: 56 Turret rpm:40rpm Compression Force (KN): LHS: Main:16.9, Pre:5.7 RHS: Main:17.1, Pre:6.2 S. PARAMETER ACCEPTANCE TIME INTERVAL (LHS) No. CRITERIA 0 05 10 15 20 1 Weight of 20 tablets 21.28 ± 2% (20.85 21.71g) 21.24 21.26 21.26 21.28 21.25 2 Disintegration Time NMT 20 10'52" 12'31" 09'59" 11'02" 12'15" 3 Friability NMT 0.8% w/w 0.34 0.41 0.37 0.33 0.39 The compression parameters such as weight of 20 tablets, disintegration time, friability, individual weight variation, thickness and hardness are taken in to consideration at slow www.wjpps.com 5414
(20RPM), medium (40RPM) and high (60RPM) speeds of machine. The results shown here are the one observed at medium speed (40RPM) which is found to be optimum. TABLE No. 2 Speed: Medium (40rpm) Feeder rpm: LHS: 52, RHS: 56 Turret rpm:40rpm Compression Force (KN): LHS: Main:16.9, Pre:5.7 RHS: Main:17.1, Pre:6.2 S. PARAMETER ACCEPTANCE TIME INTERVAL (RHS) No. CRITERIA 0 05 10 15 20 1 Weight of 20 tablets 21.28 ± 2% 21.28 21.29 21.28 21.24 21.26 (20.85 21.71g) 2 Disintegration Time NMT 20 11'31" 13'03" 10'31" 11'15" 12'52" 3 Friability NMT 0.8% w/w 0.36 0.44 0.40 0.34 0.41 TABLE No. 3 Time / No. of Tablets 0 05 10 15 20 Individual Weight Variation of the tablet : 1.064 ± 5.0% (1.011 1.117 g) Speed: 40rpm 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 LHS 1.061 1.060 1.057 1.067 1.070 1.059 1.059 1.062 1.059 1.059 RHS 1.053 1.064 1.076 1.060 1.058 1.061 1.057 1.064 1.059 1.065 LHS 1.054 1.045 1.061 1.067 1.063 1.061 1.060 1.059 1.066 1.055 RHS 1.063 1.067 1.070 1.059 1.072 1.071 1.075 1.065 1.051 1.055 LHS 1.057 1.066 1.053 1.059 1.053 1.071 1.069 1.050 1.070 1.059 RHS 1.052 1.065 1.067 1.057 1.056 1.064 1.066 1.055 1.067 1.056 LHS 1.065 1.066 1.059 1.058 1.063 1.060 1.064 1.047 1.063 1.061 RHS 1.054 1.064 1.063 1.058 1.055 1.063 1.059 1.057 1.075 1.059 LHS 1.042 1.049 1.056 1.056 1.060 1.051 1.064 1.056 1.059 1.056 RHS 1.054 1.056 1.043 1.043 1.065 1.054 1.056 1.053 1.046 1.058 TABLE No. 4 Time / No. Thickness: 7.1 ± 0.3mm (6.8 7.4mm) of Tablets 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 LHS 6.98 6.96 6.98 6.97 6.94 6.94 6.93 6.94 6.90 6.92 RHS 6.96 6.94 6.94 6.93 6.94 6.98 6.98 7.01 6.96 6.96 05 LHS 6.98 6.94 6.96 6.98 6.97 6.84 6.86 6.89 6.86 6.92 RHS 6.94 6.98 6.94 6.98 6.97 6.96 6.94 6.98 6.97 6.87 10 LHS 6.91 6.94 6.98 6.94 6.89 6.88 6.89 6.98 6.93 6.92 RHS 6.97 6.98 6.94 6.98 6.94 6.92 6.93 6.94 6.94 7.00 15 20 LHS 6.94 6.92 6.94 6.94 6.97 7.01 7.0 6.98 6.99 6.94 RHS 6.89 6.97 6.98 6.94 6.87 6.94 6.93 6.94 6.93 7.00 LHS 6.99 6.89 6.94 6.95 6.98 6.93 6.94 6.98 6.98 6.94 RHS 6.89 6.96 6.98 6.94 6.89 7.0 6.96 7.01 7.0 6.98 www.wjpps.com 5415
TABLE No. 5 Time / No. of Tablets 0 05 10 15 20 Hardness: 10.0-16.0 kp 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 LHS 13.6 12.8 14.0 14.6 15.2 13.7 13.8 14.2 14.6 14.8 RHS 12.6 13.1 13.6 12.8 13.4 13.6 12.8 14.6 14.8 13.8 LHS 14.0 14.6 14.2 13.6 13.8 13.2 12.6 12.2 14.0 14.2 RHS 12.8 12.6 12.4 13.8 13.8 14.2 14.4 13.8 14.2 14.6 LHS 13.6 13.8 14.1 14.7 13.5 13.4 14.9 15.0 12.8 13.3 RHS 13.8 13.8 14.2 14.7 14.9 13.6 13.4 13.4 12.6 12.7 LHS 12.7 12.7 13.6 13.5 14.2 14.5 14.6 14.9 14.8 14.8 RHS 14.8 14.1 14.6 13.6 13.6 13.2 14.4 14.5 14.3 14.2 LHS 14.9 12.9 12.8 14.6 14.7 14.1 14.4 14.4 13.9 13.6 RHS 14.8 12.8 12.6 14.6 14.1 14.2 14.5 14.6 13.9 13.8 SUMMARY & CONCLUSION The parameters studied under the compression process are such as compression force, turret rpm and feeder rpm. These are set at three different speeds and analyzed on both sides to assess the exact parameters. Turret was set at the speed of 20rpm with Feeder at LHS as 32rpm, at RHS as 36rpm and Compression Force (KN) Main at LHS as 17.0, at RHS as 16.1 and Pre at LHS as 5.7, at RHS as 5.3. Turret was set at the speed of 40rpm with Feeder at LHS as 52rpm, at RHS as 56rpm and Compression Force (KN) Main at LHS as 16.9, at RHS as 17.1 and Pre at LHS as 5.7, at RHS as 6.2. Turret was set at the speed of 60rpm with Feeder at LHS as 70rpm, at RHS as 75rpm and Compression Force (KN) Main at LHS as 15.8, at RHS as 16.3 and Pre at LHS as 5.6, at RHS as 6.5. The samples were collected from both the sides (LHS, RHS) to qualify the two press stations and the observations made from the results were found to be in specified limits as per the IH specifications. From this we conclude that the equipment is successfully qualified and can be used for production of further batches. www.wjpps.com 5416
ACKNOWLEDGMENT We express our sincere thanks to our Principal Dr.P.Solairaj and management of Sankaralingam Bhuvaneswari College of Pharmacy, Sivakasi for providing us the required facilities. We also like to thank all the members involved in this work for their immense support and cooperation. REFERENCES 1. Annex 4, Supplementary guidelines on good manufacturing practices: validation, World Health Organization, WHO Technical Report Series, No. 937, 2006, P-9. 2. Ashish Mudbidri, Tablet Compression Principles, Pharma Times - Vol. 42 - No. 11 - November, P-44, 2010. 3. Frederick j. Carleton, James P. Agalloco, Validation of pharmaceutical processes sterile products second edition, Marcel Dekker, Inc, 2006. 4. Good Manufacturing Practices for pharmaceutical products. In: WHO Expert Committee on Specifications for Pharmaceutical Preparations. Thirty-second report. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1992, Annex 1 (WHO Technical Report Series, No. 823). 5. Guidance for Industry Process Validation: General Principles and Practices, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Adistration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), January 2011, Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP), Revision 1, P-13. 6. J.Agalloco, Master Planning of Validation, PDA Training and Research Institute, April, 1988. 7. Kenneth W. Sigvardson, Joseph A. Manalo, Robert W. Roller, Fatieh Saless, and David Wasserman, Laboratory Equipment qualification, pharmaceutical technology, October, 2001. 8. L. Nandhakumar, G. Dharmamoorthy, S. Rameshkumar and S. Chandrasekaran, An Overview of Pharmaceutical Validation: Quality Assurance View Point, International Journal of Research in Pharmacy and Chemistry, ISSN: 2231-2781, 1(4), P - 1003 1014, 2011. 9. Leon Lachman, Herbert A. Lieberman, The Theory and Practice of Industrial Pharmacy, Special Indian Edition, 2009. 10. Maas & Peither AG, GMP Publishing, LOGFILE No. 8 / August, P-2, 2011. www.wjpps.com 5417
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