Multi-camera inspection cell for medical ring product 

This multi camera inspection cell, is designed for vaginal rings which provide women centric protection against HIV and AIDS, particularly targeted at developing nations. In the silicone rubber ring is a drug called dapivirine, an anti-viral drug, which is slowly released over the course of a month.  

3P innovation developed the whole supply chain for the machine, developing a benchtop vision system to measure early rings. We also developed a novel Rama spectroscopy system that could detect the amount of drug in the ring in 90 seconds. This was a massive benefit as previously this would take 3 months to do, resulting in a reduced development time by several years! At 3P innovation we have a fail early, fail fast mantra which enables success, and this project is a perfect example. This concept can be read further in our blog.

We also carried out a detailed Cost of Goods investigation which identified batch size and inspection as the two opportunities for major cost reduction of more than 50%. This led to the automated inspection cell (including the use of a third-party cooling tower).

The 3P innovation system used 7 cameras to carry out 100% inspection of the surface of the ring. We were able to detect black on white and white on white particulate. We would also look to detect surface anomalies and the ring dimension.

The main inspections are carried out using line scan cameras and spinning the ring in-front of the three cameras above the ring, bringing the ring to become a rectangle. The ring would then be flipped over and repeated with two more cameras.

We used a Keyence system which would allow for the system to run up to 40 rings per minute.