Vial handling

This line from STIWA is designed to transport vials to and from an automated visual inspection machine (AVI). Careful and precise handling of vials is crucial to minimize the risk of glass breakage.

The vials are placed in trays on pallets, are picked up by a robot with suction grippers and transferred over to a staging table, from which they are automatically fed into a conveying system. After inspection, the vials are transferred from the conveyor belt and reloaded into the trays. If the test results are negative, they are automatically sent to manual workstations and checked individually there.

105 VIALS PICKED SIMULTANEOUSLY

A robot picks up the 105 vials from the handling trays and places them, depending on the processing step, either on the staging table or replacing them into the handling trays.

GENTLE PRODUCT HANDLING

As liquid pharmaceutical products have a significant value, all processes, such as the loading and unloading cycles, are designed to handle the vials with care.

MANUAL WORKSTATIONS FOR SECOND INSPECTION

Vials that fail the test are automatically transferred to one of 8 tables where operators manually and visually recheck them. Vials that are deemed acceptable are then returned to the system via a return conveyor belt.

THE FACTS

Performance	180 vials per minute
Area	154 m²
Location	Europe
Special requirements	Controlled not Classified Area
Degree of automation	Fully automated