As globally safety requirements demand more and more the quality assurance of pharmaceutical products and blister pack, the inspection systems trustworthiness has become of crucial importance.

Traditionally, the majority of medicines are solid drugs as tablets or capsules, fed into plastic pharmaceutical bottles (especially in the United States) or packed in blisters, very common in Europe and Asia.

Pharmaceutical companies need to take every precaution to deliver consistently high quality drugs, as incorrectly packaged or damaged products could generate expensive recalls, besides affecting patients’ safety. Blister packaging machines integration with upstream and downstream equipment is another key point for a successful production process.
To ensure that defect-free products are delivered to the market, companies are heavily investing in blister pack inspection technologies that allow an accurate inspection of blisters, in order to:
• Verify the product presence – detecting missing products (empty pockets in the blister pack)
• Avoid wrong colour mix-up
• Ensure the presence of the products inside the blister cavity
• Ensure the product completeness checking if the pills/capsules/tablets are broken or chipped
• Detect foreign products/body (identifying extraneous objects and incorrect products in or around the pockets)

The successful approach to grant quality and safety is the use of a colour blister pack inspection system specifically dedicated to blister and thermoforming machines, for the inspection of oral solids and pharmaceutical components in trays. A flexible and integrated solution enables also to perform the typical checks associated to the downstream equipment, such as codes and variable data printed on the product’s package, being able to manage the printer’s communication too.

A single inspection system for multiple needs on the same packaging line facilitates overall management, equipment maintenance and support, thus becoming a key factor for a favourable business.