High-throughput dose inspection system launched

Key Technology subsidiary Symetix has launched a new inspection system fortablets, capsules, and softgels called Vantyx that it claims can achieve 100 percent, in-line inspection at full production speeds.

Vantyx uses Key's patented SCA (spatial colour analysis) technology, which verifies product colour, count, shape, position, and presence of print and removes foreigners, colur errors, shape defects, and missing doses to assure every dose conforms to product requirements.

The system provides the industry's highest color and spatial resolution, claims Symetix, and is capable of inspecting up to 10,000 individual tablets, capsules, or softgels per minute, or as many as 360 complete blisterpacks per minute.

Key Technology set up Symetix as a dedicated pharmaceutical business unit last month to lend some focus to its efforts to sell automated inspection and specialised conveying systems to the drug industry.

In a statement, Symetix said the Vantyx inspection system can be embedded withinother packaging machinery such as blisterpack thermoformers, flat bed printers, and slat fillers. The company can also supply Vantyx as a stand-alone, bulk-to-bulk high volume inspection system.

The company also noted that it can equip Vantyx with two to six high-resolution color cameras, depending on the needs of the application. With up to six cameras, Vantyxcan simultaneously inspect up to six different packages or six separate arrays of product. Each camera uses a dedicated image processor for maximum speed and image resolution.

"Vantyx ensures accurate product identification and product integrity tomaximise pharmaceutical manufacturers' diligence in assuring product qualitywhile running at full production speeds," said the firm. The system can also monitorupstream production processes, which allows manufacturers to address the FDA's Process Analytic Technology (PAT) guidelines for physical characteristics of a product.