Pharmaceutical tablets are covered by various coatings for many reasons, such as helping the tablet dissolve once ingested. Tablet requirements inside the body sometimes conflict with the mechanical properties required to maintain appearance and durability before use. During the manufacturing and packaging processes of pharmaceutical tablets there are many environmental situations that can harm the coverage and appearance of the coating.
Two main causes of damage are either when the pill is travelling on the metallic conveyer or when the pill is inside the container and is in contact with other tablets. The coating must withstand the process of conveying and packaging with minimal failure while maintaining ingestion requirements. The reliability of the tablet coating process is critical to existing tablet production and will be more demanding with new or improved pharmaceutical coatings.