Crest Solutions vial inspection systems cover a wide range of vial types. All our solutions are designed for the actual environment, providing reliability, fail-safe operation, production speeds and accuracy.

Manual inspection of vials is slow and time consuming. Vials are required to be rotated through 360 degrees in front of the inspector. Manual inspection typical only attains speeds of 30-40 vials per minute and the operators performing the inspection need to be changed twice an hour to allow them rest from the task.

Crest Solutions have developed an in-line vial cap inspection system with has been validated up to speeds of 300 vials per minute.

The systems inspects:

• Cap for poor crimping
• Particulate Matter
• Scratches
• Surface defects
• Crown cap inspection
• Stopper detection
• Stopper inspection
• Read text on crimp
• Read text on vial

The system complies to all relevant 21 CFR part 11 requirements and ships with a full GAMP documentation package.

How it works

The Vial inspection machine is based on the 1371 high speed vial handling system supplied by FP Developments. Crest Solutions has integrated 2 high resolution vision systems with the 1371 platform.

The first system is designed to verify the text on the crimp. This print inspection system consist of 4 cameras placed evenly around the vial. The system takes 4 images simultaneously and stitches the 4 images together using Cognex Omni VIEW software, allowing the system to identify the text or 2D datamatrix code regardless of the orientation of the vial.

The second vision inspection system also consists of 4 cameras placed evenly around the vial. Each camera captures about 120 degrees of the crimp. The system analyses 4 images of each vial and returns a result within 200ms.

Unique lighting designed to highlight minor and major imperfections in the crimp is utilised. If any of the 4 cameras of either vision system detects a reject then the correct vial is rejected into the reject bin.

Using a smart lighting system allows the solution to cater for the full spectrum of crimp colours. Optionally additional vision components can inspect text or a 2D datamatrix code placed on the top of the vial or look for imperfections in the crown cap.

The solution utilises Crest Solutions SecureBase software to ensure FDA 21 CFR part 11 compliance.