April 2021

34 n MACHINE VISION April 2021 www.drivesncontrols.com Cameras keep a close eye on vital vaccine vials P roviding Covid-19 vaccines for every person around the globe is going to require around 8 billion doses. In addition to the availability of the vaccines, a decisive factor in the race against time is the availability of high-quality glass vials to contain the precious liquids. Experts estimate that global demand for vaccine vials will increase by one to two billion over the coming two years. Vial manufacturers are ramping up production massively so that their containers do not become a bottleneck in the supply chain. However, medical-grade vaccine vials are not standard glass tubes. Whether in the form of rolled-rim bottles, threaded bottles or ampoules, they are made of a special glass borosilicate and require specialised production lines. There are enormous demands on the vial manufacturers: it is not only a matter of producing large quantities of containers quickly, but also of maintaining particularly high quality standards. The glass must resist a wide range of chemicals and temperature changes and must not contaminate the medicines. Any interaction between the container and the liquid inside could affect the vaccine. Even the smallest scratch, crack or fissure can contaminate a line during the filling process, making an entire batch of vials unusable, and even leading to complete machine shutdowns. Isotronic, a German company that specialises in glass inspection systems, has developed a vision-based technology for quality control of vaccine bottles. “Our system enables high-speed processing and is usually used at several points in the production line,” explains the company’s managing director, Gregor Fabritius. Isotronic’s VialChecker system uses up to eight high-resolution cameras to observe laterally rotating glass tubes, or the containers’ glass bottoms. According to Isotronic’s chief operating officer, Valentin Mayer-Eichberger, the cameras“capture at least 20 images per rotation, allowing up to 120 vials per minute to be inspected for dimensional accuracy or surface condition with very high precision”. The system performs dimensional testing with an accuracy of up to 0.01mm. It can also detect defects such as cracks, scratches, chips, inclusions or stains with an accuracy of 0.1mm 2 . Intelligent software is used to describe, analyse and clarify any faults. The industrial vision cameras for the VialChecker system are being supplied by IDS Imaging Development Systems. n Industrial cameras are playing a key role in ensuring the quality of the glass vials used to hold Coronavirus vaccines. Any faults could contaminate and entire batch and lead to production line shutdowns. A machine vision camera captures high- resolution images of the surfaces of vaccine vials while they are being rotated.