If the needles in pre-filled syringes penetrate the needle shield, they can put the sterility of both needle and syringe at risk, as well as endanger medical staff. Seidenader claims a pierced needle shield cannot be verified reliably by vision systems and even less by operators.
Applying high voltage to the lower section of the syringe - using the conductivity of the protruding needle - allows any defects to be detected with high reliability, the company says. Tests have shown that even defects hidden by rigid plastic shields (RNS) can be detected.
The inspection station can be integrated in a star wheel on Seidenader's standard VI-S inspection machine. Any syringes with defects are separated in a dedicated reject channel.
