In-Sight 3800 Series
General-purpose, AI-powered vision system designed to handle high-speed, high-resolution inspections across a wide range of manufacturing applications.
Maintain tablet quality during high-speed production
Tablet and pill inspection tasks check everything from dimensions and surface texture to shape, color integrity, and printed markings before the products head to packaging. Automated inspection is mandatory: modern pharmaceutical manufacturing moves fast, processing thousands of tablets or capsules per minute. Manual inspection simply can't keep up with those speeds while catching subtle defects, foreign matter, or marking issues that could slip through. And when quality failures lead to product recalls, you're looking at millions in losses and serious damage to your reputation. That’s why advanced process control solutions aren't optional – they're essential.
Process control in conventional pharmaceutical manufacturing is severely limited
Pharmaceutical inspection is hard. There are diverse surface characteristics ranging from matte finishes to highly reflective coatings that can make perfectly good products look defective under the wrong lighting. The manufacturing process creates countless variations in color, texture, and dimensions that your inspection system needs to recognize as normal, not problematic.
Whether it’s tablets, pills, or capsules, here's what makes oral solid dose inspection so challenging:
- Surface complexity: reflective coatings and varied textures complicate defect detection
- Defect diversity: everything from chips and cracks to stains, foreign particles, and marking errors
- Throughput requirements: production lines need to maintain high-speed operations while maintaining product quality
- Regulatory standards: Companies need to comply with various U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and international standards that mandate flawless record keeping, process controls, and other requirements
Traditional pharmaceutical inspection still relies heavily on manual operators, but here's the problem – people get tired, distracted, and inconsistent. Likewise, programming conventional rule-based machine vision for every possible tablet variation and defect type would be impractical and too time-consuming.
AI makes high-accuracy pharmaceutical inspection achievable
Cognex uses AI technology to overcome the limitations of rule-based machine vision systems. Rather than programming a rule for every iteration of a defect or subtle color difference, Cognex uses AI to learn the difference between subtle defects and acceptable variations. The technology analyzes images of tablets and capsules labeled “good” and “bad.” As the AI model trains on more images, it gains a better understanding of what constitutes a defect and what is an acceptable variation.
What this means for your solid dose manufacturing:
- Comprehensive defect detection: Catch surface damage, foreign matter, and marking defects without having to program a rule for every variable
- High-speed processing: Maintain throughput requirements while ensuring you stay compliant
- Adaptive learning: Quickly recognize new types of flaws
Cognex AI minimizes false rejects while reliably detecting subtle defects that legacy systems overlook—delivering the speed and precision pharma demands.
With specialized expertise in pharmaceutical manufacturing and comprehensive support through our online resources, Cognex can set you up for success 24/7.