Pharmaceutical and Medical: Primary Packaging
Primary Packaging in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry
In the pharmaceutical industry, filling the correct amount of a product into the correct container is critical. Processes are automated and operate at high speeds.
Used on bottle fillers, tablet dispensing machines, desiccant dispensing machines, blister packaging machines, and other unit dosage packaging equipment, Banner sensors solve a number of challenging applications. They can be used to verify bottle position at filling stations and to monitor the dispensing and hopper levels of drugs. Vision systems verify that blister packs are completely and correctly filled and inspect stopper position and height to ensure that containers are sealed properly. Clear object detection sensors reliably detect clear glass or plastic bottles, vials, syringes, and ampoules used to package liquid dosage products. Our unique liquid detection sensors inspect fill level to ensure products are not under filled or over filled.
Applications
Clear Bottle Detection
Banner’s Q26 Clear Object Detection sensor is ideal for this type of application because it quickly and reliably detects clear and transparent objects and its coaxial design results in higher positional accuracy, which allows for precise leading edge detection. With a coaxial optical design, the emitted and reflected light travels along the same axis, which allows for very short sensor and reflector separation distances, ranging from 5 to 800 mm.
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I.V. Bag Liquid Detection
Banner’s QS30H2O was developed specifically to address challenges with optically sensing the presence of water and water based-liquids. The QS30H2O operates in a through beam sensing mode and the emitter has a unique LED with a 1450 nm wavelength in the mid-IR (infrared) range—a wavelength that is easily attenuated by water.
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High-Speed Tablet Counting With DF-G2
Banner’s DF-G2 small object detection fiber amplifier is ideal for small object detection and counting applications. The DF-G2 amplifier has a fast response speed and can detect extremely small sizes, such as 3 mm tablets or pills. When the tablets fall into bottles, it fires an output to the DF-G2 fiber amplifier, which keeps count of tablets.
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Bottle Fill Level Detection
The Q4X analog sensor is set up in trigger mode and uses the averaging feature to provide a more consistent fill level measurement. Banner’s Q3X sensor, whose output wire is tied to the Q4X’s remote input wire, is used to detect the leading edge of the pill bottle and has a one-shot output timer setup based on the conveyor speed to determine when and how long the Q4X will measure.
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Blister Pack Inspection by Color
Tightened federal regulations make the quality of pharmaceutical packaging increasingly critical. A PresencePLUS Pro COLOR vision sensor inspects blister packs to make sure each blister contains the correct tablet and that the tablet is not broken. It also detects empty blisters and those containing foreign matter.
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Position Verification for Vial Filling
It is critical to verify the position of the stoppers since improperly sealed or positioned stoppering can compromise the product's integrity. Vision inspection offers a flexible, powerful, and effective method to inspect for seal quality and stopper position for the vial filling process. For stoppers with full insertion, we are looking for the minimal amount of gap between the bottom of a stopper relative to the top of a vial.
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Featured Products
Rugged Laser Distance Sensor: Q4X Series
The rugged Q4X laser distance sensor offers superior performance and solves many challenging applications across a variety of materials, surfaces and colors. Discrete, analog, clear object, and IO-Link models are available.
Fiber Optic Amplifier: DF-G2 Series
Designed to achieve the world’s fastest response rate, the DF-G2 fiber optic amplifier can achieve 10 microsecond response time with 5 microsecond repeatability. Output options include discrete, dual discrete, and IO-Link communication.
Q12 Series
PW12-rated rugged ultra-miniature sensor with multiple modes for accurate sensing in confined spaces.
QM26 Washdown Sensor
Ideal for areas where food or materials may come in contact with the sensor without returning to the processing line.
QMH26 Hygienic Sensor
Ideal for areas where food or materials that come into contact with surfaces may return back into the process.
LED Strip Light: WLS27 Series
WLS27 LED strip lights are protected by a shatterproof copolyester shell and a redundant sealing method prevents water ingress. Each strip light provides brilliant, even illumination in difficult environments.
Heavy Duty LED Light: WLC60 Series
Banners WLC60 Heavy Duty LED Lights are designed to operate in harsh environments and withstand high pressure washdowns, as well as exposure to coolants and detergents. Available in stainless steel models and IP67-, IP68g-, and IP69K-rated.
Heavy Duty LED Light: WLC90 Series
The WLC90 Heavy Duty LED light was developed for harsh environments, like machining centers, food processing centers, and general industrial automation.
High-Intensity LED Spot Work Light: WL50S Series
Very bright sealed LED spotlight for general task lighting applications. IP69K rating makes it ideal for harsh wash-down environments.
High Performance Fiber Optics: Vantage Line
Competitively priced standard fibers and new problem solvers.
Success Stories
LED Lights Used To Inspect Liquid Pharmaceuticals
One global provider of healthcare products had been using vision machines to detect particulates in their liquid pharmaceuticals. When the machines were no longer able to detect contaminants to the required percentage level, the company began using human visual inspections. Since many of the particulates are extremely minute, the company needed to install bright and highly uniform illumination in their work stations so operators could effectively verify the quality of products.
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Blue LED Sensor Detects Amber Bottles
A recent industry switch from polypropene (PP) to polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) bottles prompted a leading US mail-order facility to re-evaluate their fulfillment process. With over 2,000 red LED sensors to be replaced, the facility turned to Banner for a solution.
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