Case Study: packaging flaw detection
Background
Packaging techniques for pharmaceutical products are subject to high quality requirements. In some cases the content of the packaging must be kept sterile and breaks in the seal or bubbles can be serious quality control issues.
Opportunity
Our client provides specialist packaging equipment to European pharmaceutical manufacturers. The traditional method of testing blister packaging involves off line batch testing which is slow and destructive of the product being tested.
There was an obvious demand from our client's customers for equipment that could provide comprehensive online testing without slowing the production line or damaging product. Comprehensive testing allows manufacturers better control of the product quality, giving important reassurance to consumers and regulatory bodies.
Our approach
There are already a range of well proven techniques for providing online quality analysis in other industries and these were the starting point for our development. The rapid product turnover, limited range of flaw types and clean environment suggested a bespoke machine vision system as the preferred technique. However, to allow such a system to approach the theoretical performance required careful optical design and selection of components.
The prototype system is capable of detecting flaws down to 5µm, and is selected for high speed and low cost. It is now the basis for discussions with a number of large pharmaceutical companies for full scale systems, which Sentec will work with the client to deliver.
