Friability Tester / Friability Test Apparatus

Compressed powders in uncoated pills or sample tablets can easily shed small particles during transport, compromising the integrity of medications or the safety of workers exposed to reactive residues; this frustrating reduction into smaller pieces is known as friability. Friability testers test the degree to which a compressed substance will be reduced to fine particles or fibers when affected by friction, pressure, or vibration. Tablets are placed into a rotating single-chamber Roche drum or dual-chamber Varian drum (these are industry terms of art; different vendors often have their own names for proprietary drum designs). The user then selects test parameters based on the number of rotations, time, or starting and ending sample weights. To accommodate high-throughput-dependent workplaces such as pharmacies, some friability testers can handle multiple sample types at once, and have pre-programmed test algorithms for commonly assessed medications or substances.