vials, blister strips and clinical products for small as well as mediumsized sme healthcare and pharmaceutical manufacturers are generally packed with product by external service providers. however, in the long run, the price of using these service providers is remarkably high. manufacturers, who package their products, can retain the highest quality at high production quantity and defeat these high costs by developing and maintaining their own largescale packaging machines. knoll vpa gmbh of hüttisheim, located at germany, has developed a compact and fullyautomated packaging process to meet this challenge. this automated packaging system enables intelligent quality control by using a cognex insight® vision system. this machine has designed specifically for smes. however, even large manufacturers can use it to meet their requirements during highdemand periods. the system is easily movable as it is on rollers, and it lets healthcare and pharmaceutical do their packaging in the least space at maximum quality levels at the cycle rates of up to 45 units in a minute. this packaging machine is only 244 cm 9.61 in long and 70 cm 2.756 in wide. this requires just 140 cm 5.51 in working area. it is appropriate for clinical prototype packaging, small to medium production runs and, packaging operations as well as blisters and vials. it facilitates healthcare and pharmaceutical manufacturers to shape both soft and hard packaging materials such as alualu or pvcalu, to fill as well as seal them and to manufacture blister pack formats. it feeds in the packaging film as well as heats and shapes it. before finally marking and stamping the product units, it prints the foil seal and applies it. the insight vision system entirely manages quality control. the insight vision system confirms the completeness of the packaged products and their shape and position and guarantees the perfect quality. the insight vision system has also enhanced the positioning correctness of modules for knoll&rsquos tattoo machines. despite the contrast difficulties, which are caused by black plastic heads with integrated tattoo needles, the vision system determines the position using a small ink filling opening of only 3x3 mm 0.119x0.119 in. the insight system also resolves whether the needles being used are broad or round versions. it is easy to test a broad range of tattoo modules by using preconfigured settings. the wide cognex image processing library makes this easy and quick. the easybuilder® configuration software is easy to use, a touchscreen facilitates them quickly enable as well as control the superiorperformance cognex image processing tools. a visionview® visualization system enables the user interface &ndash monitoring the manufacturing processes and abolishes the need for a pc. l. when it is used in a larger system networks, visionview automatically identifies any cognex image processing system and can instantaneously present the data from up to nine vision systems. the vision system that is 30x30x60 mm 1.18x1.18x2.36 in provides a complete image processing system. customizable mounting options include a nonlinear calibration tool, which lets the system to be mounted at an angel up to 45 degrees &ndash even in difficulttoreach locations and tight spaces on robots. source of information httpwww.pandct.commediashownews.aspid35089
