Cognex 
 Enhanced display provides greater control


 Cognex (Natick, MA) offers new features to its “VisionView” operator display panel, which communicates with the company’s “In-Sight” and “DVT” vision systems. Engineers can now use the In-Sight system to choose vision-system parameters to display and modify on the factory floor. Through touch-screen controls, operators can use VisionView to change lot codes and change regions of interest. Operators do not need a computer to make these changes, which saves time during product changeover. Engineers can apply password protection to allow only authorized personnel to change critical processes.

An additional benefit of the enhancement is that it only exposes operators to the parts of the In-Sight software that they need to control the vision system, says Narayan Subramaniam, Cognex’s product manager for VisionView. Operators thus do not need extensive training to use the display. He adds that the new VisionView makes it easier to deploy an operator panel.

W.L. Gore and Associates
 Online interface facilitates fluid-assembly design


 W.L. Gore and Associates (Newark, DE) has introduced its “STA-PURE Bioprocess Configurator,” an online tool that allows users to design single-use fluid assemblies for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The interface includes menus of components, including tubing, connectors, and peripherals, that users can drag and drop into a workspace to design an assembly. The application quickens the design process and helps clients communicate what they want to build. The tool thus allows clients to begin production quickly, according to Greg Tronto, business leader of single-use bioprocess components.

The STA-PURE tool includes built-in rules that do not allow users to design assemblies with parts that do not fit. Users can create nonstandard designs, however, Tronto explains. Components automatically snap in place in the correct orientation when users drag them around the drawing. The application allows clients to save their designs, which alerts Gore that a user might need assistance. It does not prompt users for personal information until they are ready to save or submit their design to Gore. 

Articles

PharmTech's monthly newsletter, Equipment & Processing Report, reviews the Editor's Picks for the October 2008 edition from Cognex and W.L. Gore and Associates.

October 2008 Editor's Picks: Products from Cognex and W.L. Gore and Associates

Vacuum-conveying technology is commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry to move materials through the processing line, blend ingredients in various solutions, and handle tablets. Because it is an enclosed system, vacuum conveying is safe, hygienic, and the preferred solution for many applications. The vacuum conveying of powders and granules, however, must be performed properly to avoid segregation, the separation of ingredients that results in an uneven mixture. 


 Segregation during the conveying of powders is a problem for the pharmaceutical industry. Various factors influence how solids separate during material transfer. These factors include particle size, shape, and density; speed of transfer; geometric variables such as the angle and length of the conveying distance; and the presence of static electricity. Regardless of its cause, segregation can be a costly challenge for manufacturers.

Because it uses an air stream to move particles, vacuum conveying presents the risk that ingredients will separate through sifting. Smaller particles will pass through the mixture of larger particles. Dense particles will drop below less dense particles. Many pharmaceutical products depend on an accurate powder-to-powder ratio, and end-product quality is in jeopardy if segregation is not mitigated. The problem should be addressed in advance because much raw material may be wasted even if the incorrect mixture is detected before end processing. 


 Segregation is not exclusively a powder- and bulk-conveying problem. It can occur when a product is transferred from a mixer to a feeder or during mix discharge at the end of the conveying line, where heavier materials drop to the bottom of the mixer. But manufacturers can take steps to optimize the conveying process.

Pneumatic conveying encompasses several phases such as lean-phase conveying and dense-phase conveying. During lean-phase conveying, a great amount of air is mixed with a small quantity of powder, which results in high air velocity and high powder velocity. In this type of system, the volume and speed of air are high enough to keep particles continuously moving in suspension. These factors also increase the chance of segregation because light and less-dense particles flow faster than heavy and dense particles. 

Dense-phase, or plug-phase, conveying occurs at a slow speed. A low volume of air in the conveyer moves material in plugs separated by small distances. This conveying technique creates fluidization, which converts powdered material into a fluidlike state. Sometimes used at the suction point and discharge point, fluidization lets compressed air pass through porous materials. Fluidized material is moved in waves at a slower speed than the compressed air. 

Dense-phase conveying better maintains the mix’s desired ratio. Air speed is not as high in dense-phase conveying as in lean-phase conveying. Thus, the separation resulting from particle-size and weight variation is lower. 

Empirical testing improves quality and content


 Although segregation is a common problem, it requires a specific solution for each conveying application. Dense-phase conveying is the best strategy to mitigate segregation, but it cannot be applied the same way in every case. Different materials behave differently and should be tested and evaluated before the conveying process is adjusted. Likewise, different mixes of ingredients require different adjustments to the conveying application. 

Pharmaceutical companies test their mixes regularly to ensure product quality and content. The conveying line should also be assessed, including how variables affect material transfer. For example, elements such as piping (e.g., pipe ends, bends, and sharp edges) change the material’s flow characteristics and affect segregation. The whole installation around the conveyor should therefore be assessed before developing a solution.  


 New conveying products and systems will help pharmaceutical manufacturers reduce segregation. PIAB is currently developing a constant-speed conveyor. Setting the vacuum pump that provides flow in the conveyor at a consistent speed would ensure that, regardless of the product being conveyed, segregation would be an easier problem to solve. Typical pumps are affected by the pressure drops that occur throughout a system, but the pump PIAB is developing compensates for pressure drops by changing the flow (i.e., speed). A pump with a consistent speed is set for a fixed vacuum level and not a fixed flow.  

Peter Tell is the chief technical officer of PIAB, Sjöflygvägen 35 SE-183 04, Täby, Sweden, tel. +46 0 8 630 25 00, fax +46 0 8 630 26 90, 

In the Mixer

Vacuum-conveying technology is commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry to move materials through the processing line, blend ingredients in various solutions, and handle tablets. The vacuum conveying of powders and granules, however, must be performed properly to avoid segregation, the separation of ingredients that results in an uneven mixture.

Keeping It Together: Reducing Powder Segregation in Vacuum Conveying

Manufacturing execution systems (MES) define and control production processes within the pharmaceutical industry by automatically checking equipment and materials to ensure that a manufacturing process yields dosage forms that are within specifications. Integrating MES with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can bring companies greater control over production than before and make manufacturing processes more flexible. 

Integrating these systems is challenging, however. The project takes time to complete and often requires software customization and programming skills. In recent years, vendors have introduced software applications that help users integrate or create interfaces between their MES and ERP systems. 

 (EPR) talked to Alison Smith, research director at AMR Research (Boston), about some of these applications.

EPR: What software applications could help a company integrate its MES and ERP systems?

Smith: Clients have a host of options. First, MES providers have been dealing with the ERP integration issue for years and most have prepackaged interfaces to popular ERP systems already available. Then there’s an entire class of applications called enterprise application integration (EAI) tools. Clients may choose to construct transactional integration using an EAI tool such as Microsoft’s “BizTalk” server, Tibco Software’s solutions, or IBM’s “WebSphere” software. In some cases, MES applications embed EAI software. Microsoft’s BizTalk server used to be the EAI of choice, given that most MES are built on the Microsoft platform. Clients can also choose to purchase the EAI application separately and use it for more than just their MES–ERP integration. In any case, EAI tools are basically translators that map transactions from one system into transactions that can be consumed by the other system and 

EPR: Are EAI tools sufficient to achieve integration?

Smith: From a technology perspective, yes. That said, it’s absolutely necessary for the architect to understand the interaction between business processes that’s being executed 

 the integration. In other words, you can get two systems to talk to one another, but without the business-process mapping, it’s just so much gibberish. 

EPR: Are any integration tools specific to a given ERP system?

Smith: SAP’s “Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence” (MII) tool is specific to SAP’s ERP, which is the most common ERP system in the life-science industry. MII is attractive in that it helps automate the process of building (and populating) SAP transactions. With MII, you can essentially create business logic and rules (using a combination of configuration tools that MII offers and then by writing additional HTML code as needed) that specify which data elements from shop-floor sources should be used to populate which transactions. One of the features that MII offers, which greatly helps this process along, is the applications’ ability to browse what’s called the “name space” of all of the networked data sources (including SAP’s various databases and transaction services) that can be accessed. Once you’ve got that universe of sources mapped out, you can create templates (in MII) for gathering the data, as well as creating rules to put the data into transactions. The only downside of this is that MII is essentially an HTML code generator. Users who want to get into complex business rules and logic need HTML competencies.

EPR: SAP says that Merck, Wyeth, Roche, and Novartis all use MII to integrate their MES and ERP systems. Do other applications besides EAI tools facilitate integration?

Smith: Yes, a class of tools we call enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) applications, and we typically find them in environments where they overlay MES applications or provide MES-like visibility without the execution-management piece. EMI’s primary function is to give users very broad, role-based visibility into disparate shop-floor sources of data, but even more, to use that raw data to create intelligence about production performance. They’re usually very strong at data aggregation (gathering data from various sources including historians, programmable logic controls, and operational data stores), analytics, and visualization, but can also write data sets to shared networked databases where they can be picked up by SAP, business-intelligence tools, or any other application that can access the shared space. Understand though, that this is a one-way street where the application writes data to SAP-it’s a monologue, not a conversation. Pharmaceutical manufacturers should look specifically at Aegis Analytical’s “Discoverant” offering, or as another alternative, Incuity’s (now part of Rockwell) “IncuityEMI” application. 

Production Lines

Integrating MES with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can bring companies greater control over production than before and make manufacturing processes more flexible.

Equipment and Processing Report-10-15-2008

October 2008 Editor's Picks: Products from Cognex and W.L. Gore and Associates

Keeping It Together: Reducing Powder Segregation in Vacuum Conveying

Using Software to Integrate MES and ERP Systems