Tablet Hardness Tester TH3 

Introduction to Tablet Hardness Testing  

Together with friability testing, the testing of a tablets hardness (or more correctly breaking force) plays a vital role in both product development and subsequent quality control.

In this test method, the tablet is placed between two platens (jaws), one of which is attached to a load cell and the other to a motor which provides the mechanical drive. During testing, the motorised jaw drives forward pressing the tablet against the fixed jaw until such time as the tablet breaks whereupon the motorised jaw retracts and the load required to break the tablet is recorded.

High hardness values may indicate, for example, increased disintegration times and reduced dissolution values. On the other hand, if hardness is too low then friability and hence % defective may well be too high. By exploiting the correlation between hardness, disintegration, dissolution, friability, percentage defective and weight variation, the various parameters can be manipulated to produce a dosage form with optimum characteristics.

Significant advances have been made in the field of tablet hardness testing in recent years. Copley Scientific offers a range of semi and fully automatic electronic testers incorporating these advances and varying in sophistication from simple hand held units for use on the production floor to fully automatic units incorporating print-out and data input/output facilities.

For comprehensive product details, specifications and part numbers, please request a copy of our brochure “Quality Solutions for the Testing of Pharmaceuticals”.

Tablet Hardness Tester TH3 

The Tablet Hardness Tester Model TH3 is a portable semi-automatic electronic tablet hardness tester with LCD display designed to accept tablets up to 30 mm in diameter – ideal for the tablet production area as a quick check as to compression force settings.

The tablet is placed on the test platform between the test jaw and the load cell plunger. A multi-turn low-friction hand-wheel similar to the type used on machine tools is used to apply load to the tablet until it fractures.

The resulting breaking force is displayed on the LCD display in either newtons (N), grams (g), pounds (lbs) or ounces (oz).

To test another tablet, simply press to zero the loads cell and proceed as above.

Two models are available, the TH3/200 having a range of 200 Newtons +/- 0.04N or the TH3/500 having a range of 500 Newtons +/- 0.1N respectively.

For comprehensive product details, specifications and part numbers, please request a copy of our brochure “Quality Solutions for the Testing of Pharmaceuticals”.