FEATURE MEDICAL & PHARMACEUTICAL
Quality control for the pharmaceutical sector
Stephen Hayes, managing director of Beckhoff UK, examines the challenges faced by pharmaceutical companies as the production of COVID-19 vaccines
ramps up, and explains how the company’s new motion control system will help - now and in the future
E
normous manufacturing and logistical challenges will be faced by pharmaceutical
companies as the production of COVID-19 vaccines ramps up. In this sector, however, quality assurance is essential, with every step of a pharmaceutical company’s production line, as well as every aspect of their processes, needing to be approved by the regulator. This presents a challenge: how to incorporate changes into production when trial and error is not an option. Getting it right first time means their products can be approved by the regulators and mass-production can start. Pharmaceutical companies follow established
‘good manufacturing practices’ (GMPs) and ‘good automated manufacturing practices’ (GAMPs). These are standards mandated by the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration. The standard regulates the quality assurance of pharmaceutical products by prescribing production, quality assurance and documentation of medicine production. The quality inspection of employees, facilities and material is of particular significance; and every step of the production needs to be traceable and the quality verified to pass stringent guidelines. To get the new COVID-19 production lines
going, sizeable investments in people, plants and machinery are being made. Here, there is an opportunity to introduce the latest innovations
in industrial automation into the pharmaceutical supply chain and get it certified by the regulators. The new production line will have to go through rigorous testing, quality assurance documentation, verification and acceptance by the regulator. So, why not introduce innovations that will shape the future of how medicines are produced? When it comes to quality inspection, the next
technological frontier is to design systems that incorporate machine vision (MV) technologies to automatically highlight defects or faulty products. Better still, we can look at improved ways of streamlining the means of presenting products to these MV systems, with complete control integration between both the motion and vision systems.
A REVOLUTIONARY SYSTEM Automated processes require customised movements, which is why Beckhoff has
developed a revolutionary motion control system. Called XPlanar, this moves products in a completely frictionless manner. The technology is based on electromagnetic fields, on which planes levitate in freely programmable directions. XPlanar consists of three main components:
the movers, the tiles that make up a floor for them, and the Beckhoff TwinCAT3 automation software. The tiles can be arranged to fit any space requirements and the movers can be programmed to turn, wait, park or move in any direction. They have a stainless-steel surface as standard but can be fitted with contains to carry medicines, glasses or vials. For the pharmaceutical industry, the main
XPlanar moves products in a completely
frictionless manner
advantage is that the movers provide for a noiseless, frictionless and jerk-free movement – important factors when integrating a motion system with quality control automation. In addition, as every mover is independent, it ensures that the contents of one mover does not come into contact with products on a different one, which opens up the possibility of combining products more flexibly, during packaging for example. The movers can carry up to six kilograms, or
even more if they are combined; and the planes can tilt by up to 5˚ or lift and lower themselves by up to 5cm. All these movements can be programmed flexibly to suit production or quality inspection criteria. If required, the movers can even travel up walls or on ceilings. The maximum speed is set at four meters per second and can accelerate up to 20m/s2
.
FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE Being a flexible solution, XPlanar is well suited to the quality assurance requirements of the pharmaceutical sector. Not only is XPlanar flexible enough to suit MV quality control systems and create a reliable automated flow of products through the system, but frictionless movement means that liquids won’t spill. Furthermore, XPlanar can be flexibly
reprogrammed to suit future challenges, which makes it the ideal motion system for the production, inspection and packaging of COVID-19 vaccines and any other medicines of the future.
Beckhoff Automation
www.beckhoff.co.uk
32 APRIL 2021 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS / DESIGNSOLUTIONS
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