Powders are one of the most prevalent forms of pharmaceutical preparations, serving as raw materials, intermediates or final products. Understanding their properties is essential for equipment design and daily operation.
Powder products, including flour, sugar, ground coffee and copy machine toner are widely manufactured goods available commercially. Meanwhile in nature such as dust, fine sand and snow as well as volcanic ash and the top layer of lunar regolith can all serve as powdered forms of matter.
They’re more convenient
Powders have become an increasingly popular form of nutritional supplement delivery due to their convenience. They’re easy to transport, versatile, and can easily be mixed with different food items; additionally, nitrate powders allow users to more precisely control how much nitrate they’re ingesting with every sip of beverage they take.
Powders are dry mixtures composed of finely divided medicinal and non-medicinal substances for oral administration or external application, often within the pharmaceutical industry. Their uses range widely.
Pharmaceutical powders offer more stable dosage forms than liquid forms and are less vulnerable to chemical degradation, making them suitable for geriatric and pediatric patients alike. Powders also tend to absorb moisture from their surroundings more readily than liquid forms, potentially making it less convenient in certain cases such as when used to mask unpleasant tastes or quickly decay. Unfortunately, powders cannot always accommodate drugs with an unpleasant flavor, or those which deteriorate quickly as moisture can easily collect and lead to them dissolving in air quickly enough for rapid consumption.
They’re more environmentally friendly
Powders are essential components of many manufactured goods, from flour to sugar to ground coffee, copy machine toner cartridges, gunpowder, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Naturally occurring forms include dust, fine sand and snowfall, volcanic ash and lunar regolith. Working with pharmaceutical powders may pose risks that could potentially result in serious, sometimes life-threatening diseases like silicosis if handled improperly.
Powder detergent is generally considered more eco-friendly than pods or liquid laundry detergent, requiring less water and energy for transporting, while its cardboard packaging can be reused or recycled.
Powders may also be dispersed as aerosols using pressurized containers equipped with push-button actuators, making this method especially suitable for dispensing antiperspirant and deodorant products over large surface areas. Furthermore, powder coatings require minimal maintenance or refurbishment costs thus saving resources in maintenance costs and refurbishment expenses.
They’re more versatile
Powders have many uses, from serving as ingredients in other dosage forms (granules and tablets) to being easily dispensable via aerosol spray and dispensing a consistent dose across wide areas.
Powders’ versatility lies in their unique physical characteristics. Powders are multiphase materials that resemble both solids and fluids but follow different mechanical principles, making them difficult to categorize into existing classification systems.
Partner with a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) that has experience formulating powder products. This ensures your product not only delivers on efficacy but is also enjoyable to consume and meets dietary supplement industry sensory standards for increased brand loyalty and repeat sales. Accomplishing this requires precise weighing of each powdered ingredient using calibrated scales in your CDMO’s pharmacy suite, followed by blending and filling into popular packaging formats such as bottles, tubs, stand-up pouches, gusset bags and sachets.
They’re more economical
Powders are more cost-effective to manufacture and ship than liquids or pods, which can be heavy and cumbersome.
Powders have long held sway in regions of the world where costs are high, such as Brooklyn, New York. At Walmart stores in this neighborhood — where many customers hail from Nigerian or Latin American backgrounds — you’d typically see rows of liquid detergent, while smaller stores often stock large sacks of laundry powder sold cup by cup.
Reason being, liquid ingredients are more costly to manufacture, especially those used to reduce soil redeposition and other issues. Packing all these surfactants into liquid is difficult; thus detergents often include expensive complexing polymers like acrylic homopolymer ethoxylate. Comparatively speaking, powder surfactants tend to be far cheaper.
