The weather is changing, and guess what, monsoon did hit this time. QUITE HARD. I am a Delhiite and after a going through an extremely hot summer season, experiencing a good monsoon rain was a big thing for me ! ! I did enjoy it last evening and proportionately suffering right now. ‘Achewwwwww’ Sorry ! !
Cold hit me and pills struck me. But even in the midst of everything, ‘curiosity_wala_keeda’ did strike me as well. If you ever observe the packaging of tablets or pill ( Not every Tablet), you will notice some space being left. Is it done deliberately or just for fun ?
Well here are some few possible RELEVANT reasons which I found in Internet and many websites.
Inert Environment – Some people believe that the empty space left is due to increase the inertness of the tablet by pumping vacuum or inert gases inside the empty space. If air is present inside the empty space, then the tablets might get oxidized resulting in poor performance of the medicine.
Packaging standardization – Every strip(s) of medicine is/are packed into small card box and then again packed into bigger boxes and then distributed.
By providing extra space or material, it allows a company to standardize a box size and keep same quantity of tablets in one single box. This indeed helps them save a lot of costs as they need to buy the same basic size box, only different print on it. Also, the pattern makes for efficient packaging as shown below:
A single strip may look like this
And packed together may look like this
Just Human Psychology – According to a self proclaimed physician, it has got no clinical relevance whatsoever. All this is done just so as to satisfy the human psychology. We generally believe that More cost means larger size, when in reality it isn’t so.
To Provide Strength – The packaging technique used for such packing is usually ‘blister packing’, where in the PVC sheet is used and the shape of tablet is punched through it and after insertion of tablet, its covered with Aluminium foil at the back. These additional voids, have some amount of air or vacuum inside them which actually adds to the strength the PVC-aluminium structure because these materials have tendency to bend and crumble down. These medicines have high production. The packaging does get damaged while loading, moving and unloading. The empty spaces give them a cushioning effect. Otherwise damage costs are huge.
To Produce Space For Adequate Information – Since these tablets are small in size, but the minimum information required to be given on them is quite a lot, so the overall size of packaging is generally large so as to accommodate all relevant information.
So I hope that I was able to clear some of your doubts regarding this subject. If you have any extra relevant information, please feel comfortable to share it with our readers.