| Full Factorial Designs |
Experimental Objective
The following example is based on a case study described by Fossceco (1999). A pharmaceutical manufacturer formulates tablets by mixing excipients with active ingredients and processing this mixture. The mixture is passed through an extruder to make spaghetti-like strands, which are spheronized to create small pellets and then compressed into tablet form. An experiment is performed to maximize the yield (YIELD) and assure that the mean particle size (MPS) is about 1000 microns.
The factors represent different steps in the manufacturing process as shown in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1: Factors of the Tablet Formulation Example| Type | Name | Low | High | Description |
| Factor | FLUID | 90 | 115 | Moisture content (%) |
| MIX | 15 | 45 | Mixing time (min) | |
| EXTRUDER | 36 | 132 | Extruder speed (rpm) | |
| SCREEN | 0.6 | 1.0 | Spheronizing screen size (mm) | |
| RESID | 2 | 5 | Residence time (min) | |
| DISK | 450 | 900 | Disk speed (rpm) | |
| Response | YIELD | Drug yield (%) | ||
| MPS | Mean particle size (microns) |
Task List
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