Ophthalmic Packaging Line With Single-Shell Carrier Inspection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing primary packaging lines for ophthalmic articles, such as soft contact lenses, suffer from inefficiencies in ensuring that each packaging shell contains exactly one lens, leading to discarded blister strips when errors occur, which reduces yield and requires complex grippers to prevent errors.
Innovation Solution
A primary packaging line with individual single shell carriers, a singling conveyor belt, guiding rail, and ophthalmic article presence check unit to ensure each shell contains one lens, followed by a lot sorter and sealing device to form blister strips with verified contents, allowing re-use of defective shells and reducing waste.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a single shell carrier carries multiple primary packaging shells, then productivity is improved through batch processing, but manufacturing precision deteriorates because errors in one shell cannot be individually addressed
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the carrier into multiple independent single shell carriers, each handling one primary packaging shell. This allows individual inspection and error handling for each shell while maintaining automated batch processing capabilities through the conveyor system.
Solution Approach 2:
The lens presence check unit provides real-time feedback on each primary packaging shell's contents. When a shell is found to contain zero or multiple lenses, the system triggers selective ejection of only the affected single shell carrier, enabling precision correction without disrupting the entire batch.
2Manufacturing precision
If complex grippers are used to ensure proper lens placement, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary lens presence check unit between the placement robot and the final packaged product. This intermediary device simplifies the gripper design by providing verification capability, allowing the use of simpler grippers while maintaining precision through active monitoring and selective rejection of erroneous placements.
3Manufacturing precision
If the whole blister strip is discarded when one shell contains incorrect lens count, then manufacturing precision is maintained, but productivity deteriorates due to excessive waste
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the blister strip into individually ejectable single shell carriers. When a quality issue is detected in one shell, only the affected single shell carrier is ejected while the remaining shells continue to the sealing process, transforming a batch rejection system into a selective rejection system that preserves yield.
Solution Approach 2:
The system discards only the defective single shell carrier containing the incorrect lens count while recovering and continuing to process the remaining valid shells in the blister strip. This selective discarding approach maintains quality standards while maximizing productivity by minimizing waste.
Data Source
AI summary
A Primary Packaging Line using a single carrier tray concept allows to have a lean setup of the lens transfer/ripping process from the upstream Inspection Module, blister strip formation after the inspection and a shell reusage system in case of detected missing or multiple lenses by the inspection. The primary packaging line for packaging ophthalmic articles comprises: shell supply and placement station; saline pre-dosing station; lens transfer station; saline main dosing station; lens presence check station; lens and shell reject station; lot sorter station; foil supply and sealing station and blister labeling station.