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.
Why accurate particulate matter testing is critical
The presence of contaminants in vials, ampoules, and syringes ranks among the top reasons for liquid pharmaceutical recalls. Manufacturers have many kinds of contaminants to watch for, from packaging fragments to glass particles created during ampoule forming and handling. Even microscopic particles can compromise product quality, trigger costly recalls, and potentially pose a serious risk to patient safety, making rigorous particulate matter testing essential.
Advanced AI technology lets machine vision systems detect impurities and classify them by type and size, enabling automated sorting and rejection of affected products. This ensures that the products meet strict quality standards, maintains regulatory compliance, and safeguards patients and brand reputation.
Overcome limitations of traditional particulate matter inspection
Detecting impurities in pharmaceutical products isn‘t easy. Consistent detection requires overcoming several key obstacles, including:
- Lighting complications: Special lighting is needed to penetrate containers and reveal tiny particles, but it often causes glare, reflections, or halos that obscure visibility
- Particle variability: Impurities differ widely in color, size, shape, and motion, making them difficult to distinguish from the surrounding liquid
- False positives: Particles can be confused with air bubbles, and container shapes can distort images, leading to misidentification and unreliable results
Glare, different glass finishes, inconsistent lighting, and tiny particle sizes make manual inspection challenging. Traditional rule-based machine vision systems aren’t suited to handle the amount of variables involved with particulate matter inspection. These inspection methods are slow, error-prone, and can’t keep up with high-volume production.
Cognex AI detects particulates in vials.
Advanced particulate detection for cleaner, safer pharma products
Advanced Cognex machine vision brings precision to pharmaceutical inspection, classifying, sorting, and detecting even the tiniest contaminants with ease. High-resolution cameras, adaptive lighting, and AI-powered tools work together to spot particles just a few microns wide—whether floating in vials, ampoules, or syringes—ensuring product purity and patient safety.
Flexible software adapts to a wide range of container shapes, product colors, and production speeds, enabling seamless integration of Cognex AI models. These models detect a variety of particle types, sizes, and shapes—even in the presence of bubbles or glass reflections. High Dynamic Range Plus (HDR+) imaging delivers uniformly lit images in a single high-speed capture, reducing halation and reflections. By spinning vials or ampoules, particles are distinguished from surface features, allowing deep learning algorithms to accurately identify fluid contaminants.
Our solution is compact, quick to deploy, and easy to use, and backed by global support and on-demand resources. Cognex can help your particulate matter testing processes stay efficient, compliant, and error-free.