Supervision of pharmaceutical glass container manufacturing process.

Precise control of temperature is needed in pharmaceutical glass containers manufacture during the different stages of moulding process. A slightly incorrect temperature produces dimensional tolerances above the allowed limits in pharmaceutical industry. The paper introduces the complete development of an infrared measurement system which measures the temperature for the different critical points in moulding process. This system is able to measure temperatures between 500 degrees Celsius and 1300 degrees Celsius for maximum rates about 150 containers per minute and 2 mm focus diameter. The system detects the presence of a container directly through the measurement, without needing any proximity detectors. During the usage, the system has showed high reliability and repeatability in its measurements, becoming an essential system for both the adjusting stage of the machine and the supervision of its working. The paper analyses the keys of the design, including the sensor even the measurement analysis software, highlighting the main factors which determine the repeatability in measurements, as this is the most important parameter in order to assure a correct machine supervision.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.