| Pressure is increasing on today’s pharmaceutical industry to
implement more reliable and consistent safeguards against
mistakes in dispensing medication, whether from contamination,
mixing up drugs or inappropriate dosing. As a result,
pharmaceutical companies are turning to non-destructive testing
(NDT) techniques for product and packaging inspection.
A
number of these techniques have already been adopted, including
the use of optical, infra-red, ultrasound, vacuum decay and x-ray
inspection methods. Traditionally, these have primarily been used
for batch control through various batch sampling and inspection
strategies. However, there is increasing demand for in-line
inspection of all products, particularly where they have high
commercial value or involve high dosage levels.
Applications for in-line NDT of products are as varied as the
products themselves. Typical inspection scenarios may entail:
checking fill levels in bottles and tubs of drugs, in liquid, powder,
and even tablet forms; checking for missing tablets in blister packs;
detecting contaminants (such as metal or glass) in dressings; and
checking for correctly assembled devices. |
