The manufacturer has developed solutions that use inline printers to print products in a tamper-proof manner and verify the data. MiniTec complements these solutions with individually configurable production lines for batch labeling and traceability. 

Pharmaceutical vials - named after the classic vial with the English word - are usually glass containers in the shape of a bottle. They come in a wide variety of styles, colors and sizes. Currently, everyone has images of vials of liquid Covid vaccine in their minds. The medical requirements for such containers are high: they must not alter the contents by reacting with them; they must protect the contents against external decomposition; and they must be tight and sealed to prevent atmospheric influences on the contents.

In addition, pharmaceutical products must be manufactured in a tamper-proof manner to prevent product piracy (EU Counterfeiting Directive (2011/62/EU)). For this purpose, unique codes and information are applied to the bottle and cap. ISW GmbH from Kölln-Reisiek near Hamburg is at home in this environment with its track & trace solutions. The manufacturer has developed applications that use inline printers to print the products in a forgery-proof manner and have the data checked and verified using image processing and networked databases. MiniTec complements these solutions with individually configurable production lines for batch identification and traceability.

Print and check

There are many areas of application for this, such as a pharmaceutical filling company that needs a solution for its vial filling, in which the containers are sealed airtight with a stopper. ISW has developed a solution for this: To secure the tight fit of the stopper, a metal cap is still put on and flanged. This has to be marked and the printing checked for correctness immediately afterwards. Important codes and information are printed on the caps for the purpose of traceability and product safety. The task of the solution developed by ISW, the IPAC unit (Inline Print And Control unit), is to apply these codes or plain text and to check them for correctness during the run.

The IPAC unit is integrated into the customer's production process. Following the production cycle, the filled and sealed vials enter the IPAC unit. Appropriate interlocking safety devices prevent products from being mixed in during the running process. Detectors detect the arrival of a product and trigger the printing of codes and numbers on the metal caps at the appropriate time. In the further course, a high-resolution camera with appropriate LED illumination captures an image of the printing, finds the code to be read in the appropriately set window, "reads" the printed information in the image and compares it with the target data of the respective order.

Automatically detect

"Reading" in this case means text recognition (OCR - Optical Character Recognition). The captured and identified data is compared either with the customer database in the customer ERP or with the data carried in the current order. If there are any discrepancies, the product in question is immediately removed from the product cycle. For further security, a log of the activities is kept in accordance with the requirements, in which all deviations from the target are recorded. The advantages of the IPAC unit are obvious: assurance of product safety, conformity with the requirements of standards and laws for pharmaceutical products, and 100% control without loss of time, since the system operates in the production cycle. And the dimensions of the IPAC unit are very compact, so that no unnecessary production space is wasted.

Customized software

The software for image processing and text recognition as well as the interfaces to the customer databases are developed in-house at ISW. Basis are Windows development environments and the programming language C# ("C sharp") as well as image processing database solutions. This results in an often customized application from a single source, where the manufacturer has all components around his core process in hand. The conversion into a physical plant is then carried out with MiniTec as a proven partner, which makes full use of its expertise in plant engineering. Handling and conveyor technology components as well as the aluminum profile system are used.

Numerous application possibilities

In addition to track & trace systems for the pharmaceutical industry, ISW also implements solutions for completely different areas. This ranges from breakage detection for ice cream cones to the measurement of automotive parts or the counting of frozen bread rolls. "With image processing, there is a wealth of potential applications in all industries. The potential for process improvement is huge," says Tobias Wichmann, member of the ISW management board.