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A sufficient mechanical stability of tablets to be compacted prevents problems during tableting (e.g. sticking, capping, lamination) and is crucial with regard to further processing steps such as coating or packaging. Often, an improvement of the mechanical stability is only achievable by an adaption of the production settings (die disk speed) or an alteration of the powder blend composition. In the present study, a novel lower punch vibration device was developed and implemented on a rotary tablet press to improve the mechanical stability of the resulting tablets without changing the production conditions or the powder formulation. Various types of microcrystalline cellulose with different physical properties were selected. The powders were investigated concerning their powder flow, density, particle morphology and surface area and the tablets concerning their weight, tensile strength, and capping index. The results showed that externally applied lower punch vibration improved the mechanical stability of the investigated tablets beyond the adaption of the production settingss and the physical properties of the powder blend., SPhERe Proceedings: 3rd International Symposium on Pharmaceutical Engineering Research