Robots and vision inspect pharmaceutical vials

Custom design combines with off-the-shelf components to detect tiny particles.

Time-sensitive drugs often must be administered within days or even hours of manufacturing. Before they are administered to the patient, these drugs must be manufactured (harvested), packaged, and inspected-a process that mandates checking for the presence of foreign particles in the drug after the manufacturing process. To do this, Gerald Budd, president of Phoenix Imaging, and his colleagues have developed a robotic-based vision system that can automatically load and unload products onto a test stand and inspect for such particles in a fraction of the time required by human operators.

For the full story