Packaging Compliance Testing

In-line sensor to measure gas properties in food packaging without damaging the package. The sensor moves relative to the packaging line to measure oxygen, pressure, etc. through the package without piercing. It can suck the top film to create a dome for measuring. This allows in-line, non-destructive testing of package gas properties to verify seal integrity and oxygen levels without disposing of packs. The sensor can be integrated into a food processing line with movable base and displacement unit to position it above the packs.

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Method to extract and quantify packaging impurities like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) like naphthalene, acenaphthene, anthracene, fluoranthene, and pyrene that leach into pharmaceuticals and food products from packaging materials. The method involves optimized extraction techniques, specific chromatographic analysis parameters, and validation following guidelines like ICH Q2(R2) to accurately detect and quantify PAHs from real samples.

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Verification system for pharmacy packaging that uses multiple levels of checks to ensure medication accuracy and safety during packaging. The system uses barcode scanning, image recognition, database integration, electronic prescription verification, dosage verification, drug interaction checking, allergy alerts, expiration date verification, tamper-evident packaging detection, and user authentication. It involves steps like offline coding, line check, packaging line, printed material store, online coding, return control, return to store.

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A pressurized bottle with a container made of plastic material that meets regulatory requirements for aerosol bottles containing liquefied gases and compressed gases. The container has specific thickness dimensions in different parts to provide mechanical strength for testing without cracking or deformation. The thicknesses are: - Lower part: >1.1 mm (preferably >1.4 mm) - Middle part 1: >0.65 mm (preferably >0.9 mm) and >6 mm height - Middle part 2: >0.4 mm (preferably >0.6 mm) and >8 mm height - Middle part 3: >0.4 mm (preferably >0.6 mm) and >8 mm height - Bottom part: >0.6 mm This thickness distribution prevents bottle failure during tests for venting, vacuum, drop, water immersion

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Automatic system for evaluating the sealing quality of heat-sealed packages of pourable food products like juice, milk, wine, etc. The system uses cameras to visually inspect the sealing strip that joins the packaging material. It compares the seal against predefined criteria to determine if it meets quality standards. This allows automated quality control of the heat sealing process, reducing human operator involvement.

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Automatic system for evaluating the sealing quality of packaging of pourable food products like juice, milk, or wine to reduce human involvement. The system uses cameras to automatically inspect the heat-sealed sealing strip joining the packaging material. It analyzes features like seal width, height, and gap to assess sealing quality. This allows automated monitoring of seal integrity instead of relying solely on human inspection.

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An inspection apparatus for automated packaging machines to improve quality control of packages without operator intervention. The apparatus is integrated into the packaging machine and automatically inspects the packages as they are formed. It checks parameters like fill level, seal integrity, and product quality. If defects are detected, it can reject the package or send it for further processing. The goal is to provide real-time, automated inspection of packaged products to improve quality and reduce waste compared to manual sampling.

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Method for verifying contents of pharmaceutical packages using AI to adapt image evaluation based on the specific packaging system. The method involves receiving an image of a drug package, detecting characteristics of the image associated with the packaging system using AI, and generating a modified image of the package based on those packaging system characteristics. This allows better verification of contents for different packaging types.

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Automatic optical inspection system to veri fy the outer packaging conformity speci fication of palleti zed packaging according to customer requirements. The system includes a gate station, a web application, a camera system, a trigger system and a measurement system.

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Generating packaging material certification documents that meet requirements and legal standards according to the producer responsibility recycling system. The document generation includes receiving, by the certification document generating system, packaging information of the packaged product from the second terminal; and generating a certification document regarding the packaging material of the packaged product based on the packaging information.

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Quality testing of packaging units like cardboard boxes containing products like cans, to detect deviations from desired packaging conditions. The method involves measuring the gap width between adjacent articles in the packaging unit, like cans, and comparing it to a target value. If the gap width is outside the target range, it indicates a defective packaging unit with insufficient cohesion. This allows continuous monitoring of packaging quality and identifying issues like misaligned cans or missing separators.

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Integrating a leak testing system into plastic packaging production lines to test container tightness before they leave the factory. The system mounts on the production equipment frame and uses a manipulator to grab and seal the bottles. Cold air is supplied to the bottom of the bottles to cool them before testing. The bottles are then pressurized to check for leaks. The system allows tightness testing during production to catch defects earlier in the process.

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Automatic system to ensure proper filling of oral medication packs according to prescription. The system uses robotic pick-and-place to transfer pills from dispensing trays to packing containers. Sensors verify pill size, shape, and dose match. A confirmation tray with sensors checks if pills are correctly dropped into the packs. Cameras verify pills match pack contents. This provides multiple independent verifications to ensure pills are filled correctly based on prescriptions.

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System for validating the contents of drug product packages using AI to overcome challenges posed by different packaging systems and imaging conditions. The system receives images of drug packages, detects characteristics associated with the packaging system, and generates modified images optimized for validation. This compensates for factors like lighting, packaging materials, and labeling that can affect image quality. By adjusting the images based on the packaging system, it improves accuracy of content validation across different packaging types and environments.

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A plastic aerosol bottle that meets regulatory requirements for liquefied gas aerosol products. The bottle has a container made of a specific type of plastic material and a unique neck design. The container is made of a plastic like PET, PEF, PC, PGM, PMMA, SAN, PBT, PA6, PA12, PEEK, PPG, or filled polymers with thickness of at least 0.9 mm in a specific area. The neck is also made of the same plastic and is one-piece with the body, with a thickness of at least 0.9 mm in a lower section at least 8 mm high starting 10-40% from the top. This design provides the needed strength and pressure resistance for liquefied gas aerosol bottles.

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A stable curtain coating process for producing packaging materials with improved barrier properties that meet legal requirements for migrating substances. The process involves applying functional layers to a substrate using a casting method, forming a multi-layer, water-based curtain, and applying it to the substrate. The key innovation is limiting the amount of surface-active additives in the outer layers of the curtain that contact air to 0.02-0.6% by weight. This provides stability without adding excessive surface-active additives to the final packaging material.

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Easy, time-efficient, and cost-efficient method to determine the migration potential of printed food packaging inks and varnishes to ensure compliance with legal limits. The method involves extracting migratable low molecular weight compounds from the printed packaging into a solvent, quantitatively measuring a spectroscopic characteristic like absorbance or transmittance of the extract, and comparing the measurement to a calibration curve correlating migration to spectroscopic values for the specific ink/varnish-substrate system. This allows precise and reliable migration determination without the risk of falsification from other ink components absorbing at the measurement wavelength. The spectroscopic characteristic measurement is at a wavelength where the value is at least 50% of the peak maximum.

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Pressurized plastic aerosol bottle design that meets regulatory requirements for containers holding liquefied or compressed gases. The bottle has a thicker base and sides compared to typical aerosol bottles. The container has a minimum thickness of 0.65mm in a lower section, 1.1mm at the base, and 0.6mm in upper sections. This provides the strength needed to pass testing without cracking. The thicker base prevents sagging and deformation during tests. The thicker walls also prevent inversion or deformation during hot and cold tests.

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The role of standards in food packaging, especially with regard to plastics, is to provide guidance on selecting suitable materials for food contact applications. It ensures that the plastics used are safe and do not pose any harm to human health or the environment. Standards also provide specifications for testing and evaluating the safety and suitability of plastics for food packaging. By adhering to these standards, food packagers can ensure that their packaging materials are safe for food contact and meet regulatory requirements.

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Method to test and verify the bottle burst detection system of a container filling machine without actually bursting bottles. A dummy container with collapsible walls is used instead. The machine's burst detection sensors are activated by pressurizing the dummy container to the point of collapse. This tests the burst handling protocol without creating actual burst bottles and spreading glass splinters.

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Compact inspection device for simultaneously checking multiple features of containers like bottles in a filling plant. The device has a housing with multiple detection modules arranged around the container. The modules can be for tasks like checking tamper evidence, fill level, label position, closure logo, and codes. By having multiple modules in close proximity, a container can be inspected by multiple modules simultaneously for faster throughput compared to sequential inspection at separate stations.

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Continuously measuring the thickness of welded packaging seals during production to ensure consistent and reliable seals. The method involves breaking down the primary thickness measurement into low, medium, and high frequency signals. Analyzing the frequencies provides insight into the stability and quality of the welding process. By monitoring the frequency signals, it is possible to detect variations in compression and thickness that indicate defects. This allows real-time quality control and prevention of defective seals compared to post-production testing.

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A device and method to measure the strength of the base of a metal beverage can in a way that closely replicates the forces applied during capping. The device has separate axial and radial pressing mechanisms to apply loads in those directions. Loads can be adjusted and timed separately. This allows measuring the can strength under conditions similar to actual capping steps like drawing the cap and winding it onto the base.

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Medical packaging film with antistatic properties that meets regulatory requirements for packaging drugs and medicines. The film has a multi-layer structure where the innermost layer in contact with the contents and optionally an intermediate layer also contain a potassium ionomer. The outer layers don't contain the ionomer. This configuration maintains antistatic performance while avoiding excessive alkali content. The ionomer layers prevent dust explosion and reduce elutable alkali. The film meets alkali limits in European Pharmacopeia and has low ignition residue.

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Packaging for inflatable life rafts that meets flammability requirements and reduces weight compared to traditional life raft enclosures. The packaging uses a specialized film with layers of materials like heat-sealable polymer, vapor barriers, fire retardants, and metal foil to meet regulatory flammability standards. This allows a lightweight enclosure around the non-inflated life raft that provides protection and compliance without adding excessive weight.

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Pouch with an integrated loss of integrity indicator to detect if seals are compromised in flexible biopharmaceutical packaging. The pouch has an internal colorimetric detector that changes color when exposed to a tracer gas at higher concentration outside the pouch. By placing the detector inside the pouch and surrounding spaces, any leakage will cause the detector to change color. This allows verification of integrity before filling with products.

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Controlling container burst handling protocol of a filling device without actually bursting containers to test the burst detection system. The method involves using a dummy container that collapses when fluid pressure is increased. This activates the burst detection sensors and initiates the handling protocol without actually bursting a real container. The protocol can then be verified for proper execution. The dummy container has a collapsible pressure chamber that can be filled to bursting pressure.

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Packaging for individually wrapped contact lenses that provides both human-readable and machine-readable unique device identifiers (UDIs) on the package. The contact lens is sealed in a blister package with a printed UDI on the sealing member. A separate wrap with panels is attached to the sealed package. One panel has a UDI with human-readable and machine-readable parts. This provides a compact package with UDI compliance for regulated contact lenses. The wrap prevents accidental separation of the sealed package.

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Pharmaceutical packaging film that prevents static cling while meeting regulatory requirements for pharmaceutical packaging. The film has a layered structure with antistatic properties. The innermost layer, in contact with the drug, contains a thermoplastic resin with a specific concentration of potassium ionomer. The film is made of antioxidant-free thermoplastics. The amount of alkaline components eluted from the film into water meets pharmacopeia standards. The film has a formula to balance the ionomer concentration, layer thicknesses, and densities to achieve antistatic performance while minimizing elution and residue.

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Verifying the performance of materials like EVOH (ethylene vinyl alcohol) copolymer used in packaging applications. The verification involves tests like oxygen transmission rate (OTR), moisture vapor transmission rate (MVTR), puncture resistance, and abrasion resistance. The materials are evaluated under conditions like pressure, temperature, humidity, and time to determine their properties like barrier performance, seal integrity, and durability. The tests are conducted according to industry standards to verify the material specifications.

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Inspecting heat-sealed packages like food, drug, and cosmetic packaging to verify welding quality. The method involves analyzing light scattering properties in the welded area to determine actual weld width and thickness. By exploiting the different diffusive behavior of the welded vs non-welded materials, the technique extracts measurements from images of the transitions between light and dark areas. These diffusion values are analyzed to assess weld integrity.

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Sealing device for packaging bags that incorporates an accurate and automated seal inspection feature. The device has lasers to measure displacement of the sealing bars during closure. If the displacement exceeds a threshold, it indicates a subpar seal. This allows checking for sealing failures without additional equipment or tests.

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Controlling a container filling device's burst handling protocol without creating actual bottle bursts to test the system. A dummy container with a movable housing that collapses when pressure increases. The dummy container is placed on the filling line and triggers the burst protocol when the filling pressure causes the housing to collapse. This simulates a burst without creating glass splinters. The collapsed housing indicates a potential burst and initiates the protocol to reject and clean affected bottles.

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Inspection system for Pharmaceutically Tamper-resistant Packaging (PTP) sheets used in pharmaceutical blister packaging. The system aims to improve verification of inspection conditions by storing image data and inspection information from all devices related to a specific inspection target, even if other devices judge it non-defective. This allows reviewing inspections together across devices and identifying inconsistencies.

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Aseptic packaging of low-acid foods using blow-fill-seal technology that meets US FDA requirements. The method involves continuously sterilizing the aseptic working area during blow-fill-seal operations. This is done by exposing critical surfaces to sterilizing gas, maintaining sterility through continuous sterilant flow, and displacing sterilant with the product. It allows aseptic packaging of low-acid foods without enclosed sterilization zones.

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Automatic packaging process for pharmaceuticals that improves compliance verification and error checking. The process involves checking various steps like adhesive bonding, code scanning, and flap closure robustness. A compliance status is generated after each check. Packages with errors are removed from the line or re-checked if serialization was applied. By linking compliance across steps, faulty packages are caught earlier and prevents downstream issues.

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Aseptic packaging of low acid foods using blow-fill-seal technology that meets FDA requirements. The method involves pre-sterilizing critical surfaces like the fill nozzle and container before starting, maintaining sterility with sterile air/gas throughout the process, and displacing sterile air with the product to seal the container. This allows blow-fill-seal without an enclosed sterilized environment.

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Improving client compliance with deposit packaging rules to reduce delays and errors in processing deposits at vaults. The method involves having clients submit compliance reports attesting to their adherence to packaging instructions. The reports contain condition codes indicating things like item types and packaging methods. The vault extracts their own set of condition codes from the deposit and compares it to the client's report. If there are discrepancies, the vault can notify the client to correct the packaging. This harmonized reporting format allows verification of client packaging and reduces issues like rubber bands, staples, or coins slowing vault processing.

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Printing method for high-quality multicolor packaging without drying or curing steps that allows applying sequential ink layers without significant viscosity changes. The method uses electron beam curable inks with high initial viscosity (5000 cps or higher) that don't contain volatile solvents like water or organic compounds. This prevents layer mixing and viscosity issues during printing. The inks cure instantly under electron beam exposure. The lack of volatiles enables robust, easy-to-control printing without drying or curing units. The inks meet regulatory requirements for food packaging without migratable residuals.

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System to reduce errors in blister packaging of prescribed medication doses using barcodes and comparators. The system stores a patient-specific barcode with medication details. Containers for each medication have their own barcodes. A reader scans the container barcode and compares it to the patient barcode. If there's a mismatch, a fault signal is generated and packaging is prevented until the issue is resolved. This prevents errors like dosing mistakes, overpacking, and omissions.

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Sealed food packaging machine that uses a closing cap with a sensor to ensure only properly designed packaging films are used. The sensor detects the side end of the film as it's fed into the machine. This allows the machine to reject low-quality or unsuitable films that could cause issues like improper sealing, hazardous substances, or damage to the machine. By requiring specific films, it prevents using subpar films that could negatively impact food safety or the machine's operation.

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A packaging differentiation system to sort hazardous product containers from non-hazardous ones to improve compliance with disposal regulations. The system uses a machine with locking mechanisms on the input and output sides. The machine has a recognition device to identify the type of product contained in a packaging based on physical characteristics. If the recognition indicates a hazardous product, the lock on the output side is engaged, preventing disposal of the hazardous packaging in the regular waste stream. The system allows automated separation and disposal of hazardous packaging based on product identification.

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