Proditec provides affordable tablet inspection
system at the recent CPhI, designed to provide the first
alternative to manual pharmaceutical tablet inspection for smaller
laboratories.
Until now, the technology has only been affordable for high-end, high-output laboratories, but the Inspectab100 is an entry-level machine offering manufacturers half the output capacity at half the price.
"This is the only small capacity machine available on the market for automatic tablet inspection," Philippe Rincel, director, business unit pharmaceutical industry, told In-PharmaTechnologist.com.
The market for tablet inspection is growing, as manufacturers are looking to increase their overall product quality level in order to differentiate their products from generics.
Without this technology, manufacturers would have to either throw away an entire batch that contained any imperfections, recycle and remake the product if possible, or manually inspect the tablets.
Thus there is a gradual shift towards installing automated systems, in order to provide a time-effective, cost-effective and validable process.
Currently, Japan is the main supplier of automatic visual inspection systems, as any tablet manufactured in Japan or imported to Japan is required by law to undergo inspection.
Proditec, however, is the main supplier in Europe and is currently expanding in the US.
Proditec's machines offer the advantage of versatility, allowing fast checking and sorting for all visual defects on all types and shapes of tablets, unlike the Japanese machines, which are dedicated to only one tablet.
"It is designed for the European market, as European manufacturers do not want to invest in a one-tablet machine," said Rincel.
The maximum output capacity of Inspectab100 is 100,000 tablets/hour and the whole package costs €250,000.
Currently Proditec's Visitab sorting systems are being used at large pharmaceutical laboratories for inspection of high end/high value branded tablets or for tablets that are exported to Japan.
They are also used at generic and contract manufacturing sites to inspect tablets that are difficult to manufacture, and batches rejected by quality control.
