Safety is the top priority in the pharmaceutical industry, this relates also to the complete logistical chain from the individual packaging to the bundle, box and transport pallet. Besides of 100% identification of all products and packages the correct filling of bundles, boxes and pallets needs to be verified also. The different packaging arrangements need to be checked even if there are no optical features, like imprints, labels or logos, visible on the packaging units and even if, due to mechanical constraints, a perpendicular view on the packaging units is not possible.
For this application Octum ID systems for pharmaceutical products have been enhanced with 3D inspection capabilities for package arrangement (package sample) inspection based on 3D TOF cameras as part of flexible track & trace solutions.

Octum 3D package inspection systems detect reliably in 3D the position of any individual package or bundle based on 3D data supplied by TOF cameras. The inspection is performed based only on the geometrical description of the packaging and the expected horizontal and vertical arrangement of all packages in a layer, no other parameters are required. From a fixed camera position several packaging layers may be inspected without camera height adjustment. System calibration is also not necessary, it is performed automatically for any individual layer based on 3D data. The inspection may be performed with stationary or moving packages. With image acquisition times up to 50 images/s, cycle times of up to 600 inspections/min may be achieved.

The installation and commissioning of these 3D inspection systems is very simple since no other external components (lighting, lenses...) are needed. The inspection is performed independent of the package colour even if there is no visible separation between neighbour packages. Misplaced or geometrically wrong packages are also identified reliably.

By combining 2D ID systems with 3D package inspection systems under the user interface Octumiser, a very flexible track & trace solution fort the complete logistical chain may be build up. At the same time automated depaletizing solutions are also possible with this 3D system by identifying the position of the package and transferring position data to a robot for handling of the package.