DIVINE: Distributed vision network for pharmaceutical packaging inspection

• Forschungsstelle: EU FRP
• Projektnummer: 97.0633
• Projekttitel Englisch: DIVINE: Distributed vision network for pharmaceutical packaging inspection

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Quality inspection in production lines; quality assurance of pharmaceutical products; automated visual inspection; machine vision; distributed inspection network; image analysis; good automated manufacturing practice

Alternative Projektnummern (Englisch)

EU project number: EP 26415

Forschungsprogramme (Englisch)

EU-programme: 4. Frame Research Programme - 1.3 Telematic systems

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

See abstract

Partner und Internationale Organisationen (Englisch)

TESEIK Ltd (EL), FhG IIS (D), Famar SA (EL), KUKAM SA (CH)

Abstract (Englisch)

I In the industrial production of pharmaceutical products it is of vital importance to assure both the quality of the products and the presence, completeness and correctness of the associated consumer documentation and information. Visual inspection is an important step for such industrial production processes, where faulty products cannot be tolerated. Automation of these tasks is however still often hampered, because currently available inspection systems do not provide the needed computing power, flexibility and ease of use at an acceptable cost.
The goal of DiViNe is to apply advanced distributed automated visual inspection technology in industrial pharmaceutical packaging lines. The main objective is to demonstrate that it is possible to apply this advanced inspection technology on the industrial production line in a flexible, user friendly and cost-effective way.
To achieve this goal, the proposed solution has been based on advanced high performance smart-camera technology, allowing to build a high performance network of distributed visual inspection stations (DiViNe). Proven image analysis algorithms and solutions have been re-engineered under this new framework, and a distributed system with multiple stations has been designed and implemented. The inspection stations are networked to share common resources for user setup, storage and loading of configuration parameters, for storage and analysis of inspection results statistics, etc.
The following tasks, pertinent to pharmaceutical packaging inspection have been addressed by the inspection stations:
· Product Identification: Verification that the packaging elements used (such as the label, the box, the information insert etc.) correspond to the product that is being packaged.
· Print Quality and Character Verification: Verification of character strings printed on the label or the box when a pharmaceutical product is packaged (such as the LOT numbers, the expiration date etc.). Concerns also the inspection of a special official label (EOF label) placed in Greece on each individual package in order to monitor the pharmaceutical production and to warranty the authenticity of the products.
· Quality Inspection: As an example of task related to the product quality and identification, blister pack inspection (presence/absence detection of tablets or capsules and detection of broken or foreign products in the blister slots) has been implemented in the pilot installation.
The prototype system has been deployed and has been validated in the real industrial production environment of a pharmaceutical packaging facility. It is the objective of this project to demonstrate the successful transfer of proven image analysis technology to the new smart camera framework and allow the industrial user to experience the benefits that are related to the application of this high performance technology in the production environment.
The system is now under industrial beta testing at the end-user partner facilities. First purchase orders for several systems are expected from the same end-user in November. The DiViNe system will be commercialized by TESEIK Ltd in Greece and by KUKAM SA in Switzerland in Q1/2000 with the name of PharmaKam-Net.

Datenbankreferenzen (Englisch)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 97.0633