Syntegon has added a new member to its AIM 5 inspection range: a fully integrated syringe inspection line that features a de-nester and a re-nester, as well as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) function by default.
“When drugs are administered intravenously, any contamination or particle in the product is unacceptable,” says Dr José Zanardi, who is responsible for vision inspection development and applications at Syntegon.
“Our innovative and fully integrated inspection line handles syringes with utmost care and uses AI to further increase inspection accuracy.”
Earlier this year, Syntegon installed what it describes as the first fully validated AI-equipped visual inspection system on the market. Now the company is taking its AI capabilities further by offering customers the integrated AIM 5 syringe line with selectable AI by default. It is available for the inspection of flanges, stoppers, and cylinders.
Syntegon says that its AI vision system has a proven ability to increase detection rates and decrease the number of false rejects, especially in difficult products like highly viscous parenteral solutions that include air bubbles, which are sometimes hard to differentiate from harmful particles.
The line is designed for gentle handling: the robotic de-nester removes the syringes from the nest and places them precisely in a single infeed lane, while the re-nester gently puts them back into the nest after inspection.
No glass-to-glass contact occurs during the entire process, reportedly ensuring maximum product protection at all times. Thanks to the integration of the de-nester and re-nester, the line features a significantly reduced footprint. Moreover, it can be operated via a single, user-friendly Human Machine Interface (HMI).
The inspection line, which achieves an output of up to 18,000 inspected syringes per hour, is based on the AIM 5 series from Syntegon. Its modular design consists of a pre-inspection, a pre-spin, and a main inspection module. Visual particle inspection is performed using the proven Static Division (SD) technology. A high-voltage leak detection (HVLD) module can be integrated for CCI testing.
“Customers from all over the world have been relying on the AIM 5 for 20 years now,” Zanardi says. “In the new line, we have combined the synergies of the core inspection machine with state-of-the-art robotics, and boosted it with default AI applications.”
