Future proofing – Part 1. Modularity and flexibility – New LAB.line tablet hardness testers

What requirements need to be met by a tablet testing system to guarantee a successful product release? Is it dependable upon the testing system’s quality, speed, technology, flexibility or safety? Kraemer and Ischi explain…

In truth, it comes down to a combination of all of these aspects. Today there are more challenges than ever before as the pharmaceutical industry endeavours to make products safer by guaranteeing that they are of the highest quality, protect operators by ensuring safety in the production environment and save time and money through the use of flexible systems that speed up release times.

The current industry buzzwords are ‘continuous production’. Sure, it sounds promising and somehow infinite, but what does the industry need to make it happen? Kraemer Elektronik and Charles Ischi are complementing the whole pharmaceutical development and manufacturing process with a small but very important contribution — quality control of tablets and capsules.

Modularity and flexibility

There is an approach to design that divides a particular system into smaller parts, so-called modules that can be used in various systems but also made independently. This specific approach is called modular design or modularity in design. A standard modular system can be identified by the following characteristics: functional sub-division into separate, scalable and reusable parts; well-defined modular interfaces; and usage of industry standards for interfaces. Modular design offers exclusion and augmentation (meaning that a new solution is added by simply plugging in a new module), along with flexibility in design and tangible cost reduction owing to shorter learning times and less customisation.

Numerous examples of modular systems surround us in our everyday life. This modularity is an attempt to combine the benefits of customisation with those of standardisation. The laboratory testing devices in the LAB.line P-Series are designed to offer the latest technology, space-saving design and maximum flexibility. The basic devices, models P2-P5, can be tailored to the operators needs at any time thanks to the ‘Plug and Play’ extension module. This also allows for the upgrading of the semi-automatic basic devices to a fully-automatic testing system at any time. The P5 version tests all five parameters: hardness, weight, thickness, length and width.

Flexible gains:

Semi-automatic basic devices in the P-Series can be upgraded to a fully-automatic testing system.

www.ischi.ch
www.labline.info