Particulate bed compression is widely applied in various industries to break particles in comminution units or to manufacture tablets by compressing the particles to high pressures. Analyzing the medium range of compression pressures (compression stress) is complicated, as a number of phenomena occur simultaneously: particle rearrangement, force chain formation, particle breakage, particle bonding, and finally tableting. All of these phenomena affect one another and cannot be separated. However, the ability to quantify each of these phenomena and consider the strength of individual particles may lead to better understanding and design of the processes involved. The phenomenological research presented in this paper shows a number of interesting phenomena. Through experiments and extensive visualizations particle breakage within the compressed bed and individual particle crush were compared to show that particles within a bed will break at lower average pressure. In the same way, other phenomena are revealed, such as: breakage ratio in a compressed bed is limited and the strongest particles survive, the fine debris are required for bonding. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V.