John Norman, technical service representative for the Tooling and Tablets division at Natoli examines the importance of both dimensional and visual tool inspections and their direct relationship to final tablet quality.
Why Inspect Punches and Dies?
Tooling inspection procedures generally encompass a check of all critical dimensions, but frequently a visual inspection of the punches and dies may be overlooked. Even though a dimensional inspectional of the tooling may find the punches and dies to be within specification, a thorough visual inspection may find punch tip and die bore wear that could be responsible for tableting defects observed during production. An inspection of the critical punch dimensions should be performed periodically, but a visual inspection of the punches should be performed each time a tool set is removed from the tablet press.