Have you ever wondered what’s the purpose of those empty spaces in a medicine Strips? Well, you might or might not have given a thought about it yet. But this question was asked on Quora and there were some general explanations shared by different people.
Below are some possible relevant reasons why there are empty spaces in medicinal tablets!
1. TO PRODUCE SPACE FOR ADEQUATE INFORMATION
One reason is to give space for additional info about the medicine. Every tablet packaging needs to specify expiry dates, manufacturing address, contact address, type and formula of formulation, precautions, method of intake, side effects etc. 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.
2. PREVENT CHEMICAL REACTION
Some people believe that empty spaces are created so that they don’t chemically react with other tablets or get oxidised.
3. PACKAGING STANDARDIZATION
Every strip(s) of medicine are packaged into small cardbox box and then packed into bigger boxes and then distributed. By providing extra space , a company can standardize a box size and still keep same qty of tablets in the box. It 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
A single strip may look like this
And packed together may look like this
4. TO PROVIDE STRENGTH
These medicines have high production. The packaging gets damaged while loading, moving and unloading. The empty spaces give cushioning effect and prevent any damage to tablet.
5. 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.