Sanico Boosts Tablet Inspection Capacity with Metal Detectors

Pharmaceutical contract manufacturer Sanico NV has increased tablet inspection at its Turnhout facility in Belgium to 100% with the installation of four INSIGHT PH metal detectors from Lock Inspection Systems. The investment is part of the company’s continuous drive to improve quality standards for its global customer base.

“By installing an additional four metal detectors in our tabletting operation, we now offer the reassurance of contaminant inspection across our entire tablet range,” said Wim Roelants, Production Manager at Sanico. “This is a key part of our strategy to raise the bar in terms of the quality standards offered to our customers.

“Lock’s INSIGHT PH unit impressed us with its highly intuitive user interface and streamlined, GMP design which offers easy disassembly for cleaning.”

The four INSIGHT PH units are in-line installations for metal contaminant inspection during compression. As the tablets leave the press, they pass through the units in containers before moving to blister packaging. Tablet size ranges from 3–25 mm in diameter and total output is between 30,000 to 300,000 tablets per hour.

“The units operate 24 hours a day, five days a week, in a controlled and monitored, clean-zone production environment to European Pharmacopeia standards, so design, efficiency and performance of the metal detector units are all key,” commented James Chrismas, Marketing Manager at Lock Inspection Systems. “Following a two-week trial of one unit, Sanico was confident that our INSIGHT PH units would meet its stringent manufacturing requirements.”

Designed to meet increasingly demanding pharmaceutical standards, Lock’s standalone INSIGHT PH metal detector delivers tangible benefits to manufacturers of tablets and capsules. Highly resistant to vibration, the integrated digital search head and OPTIX detector management software guarantee detection and rejection of minute metal fragments, while maintaining high productivity and outstanding sensitivity to all metals.

Lock Inspection Systems Ltd, +44 161 624 0333, sales@lockinspection.co.uk, www.lockinspection.co.uk.