The pharmaceutical industry increasingly relies on intelligent automation to meet safety requirements, improve product quality and minimise human error in the production process. Automatic process control and monitoring, enabled by internet connectivity, is bringing Industry 4.0 to the pharma sector.
Chutian Technology Company is one of China’s foremost pharma equipment developers. Based in Hunan Province, Chutian works closely with leading automation experts, including Advantech, in building advanced intelligent solutions that meet demand in vertical markets by delivering quality-assured products.
One example of this reciprocal partnership is Chutian’s production of intelligent monitoring and control equipment used on pharma production lines. This equipment integrates Advantech’s high performance industrial controllers and panel PCs for outstanding industrial craftsmanship.
The challenge
Pharma inspection equipment requires the highest level of precision, accuracy, consistency and stability. It cannot be affected by human emotions or fatigue due to extensive hours of operation. The system acquires images and implements data processing and image analysis. Higher computing ability allows for the system to process and analyse more images within a given period of time. To achieve precise, high quality inspection at rapid speed, performance computing power (including graphics processing power) is the most important requirement for industrial computers embedded in the system.
In addition to high speed and precision, Chutian emphasises compact and simple mechanical designs so that their pharma inspection equipment can be easily installed or removed, and avoid corners or edges that might cause hygiene issues. Automation components for pharma equipment must fulfill their form factor demands in addition to industrial requirements for reliability and durability.
Chutian prioritises inspection equipment that acquires, integrates, and analyses data, while also automatically comparing and checking up on historical data to identify problems in the production process. As such, computing capacity is critical to high quality data storage.
An intelligent solution
Chutian’s intelligent inspection system for pharma production is based on the following client/server architecture: an Advantech industrial panel PC acts as the server connecting to several Advantech industrial controllers (clients) at different workstations which are in charge of detecting different types of flaws.
The industrial controller at each workstation connects to a PLC via a PCI-based interface to enable automatic motion controls. It connects to camera(s) via a USB card or PoE interface of the PCIe standard to acquire, process and analyse images and upload the results to the server for integrated analysis and storage.
The Advantech industrial panel PC not only visualises and displays processed data, but also executes algorithms provided by the upper computer at the backend and delivers feedbacks to controllers and PLCs. In this way, the small form factor PC plays a niche role in connecting and communicating with all parts of the system and in realising the motion and visual controls required in IIoT applications.
The PC controllers play a major role in processing and analysing images acquired from the cameras. Advantech offers high performance industrial computers that can be embedded in the system with commensurate power to support the precision, quality and speed requirements of Chutian’s inspection equipment. Advantech’s solution is in keeping with Chutian’s design philosophy of compactness and simplicity.
The benefits of Advantech
According to the head of Chutian’s inspection department, the company chose Advantech because its products provide high speed and reliable performance that meets quality benchmarks, fulfill industrial requirements for anti-shock and vibration, and offer a wide temperature range for operational reliability.
For the inspection system, Advantech provided high performance controllers for implementing data acquisition, graphic processing and image analysis that ensure the highest levels of precision and speed. The controllers provide sufficient storage capacity for storing analysed images in batch production over extensive hours.
Advantech’s industrial panel PCs provide critical server functions with minimum footprint. With a complete array of products on the market, Advantech provides options of varied sizes, performance grades, and with flexible I/O expansion for customers to select products that are best suited for their applications. Advantech technologies seamlessly fit into the systems ofcustomers with minimum adjustment.
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Article courtesy of Advantech.
