Based in La Verpillière, France, Nemera designs, develops and manufactures world-class drug delivery devices for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and generic industries. Over the past decade Mikrotron imaging technology has supported Nemera’s efforts for continuous improvement of its manufacturing processes by detecting machinery defects invisible to the human eye at the company’s Neuenburg site in Germany.
One of four worldwide plants, the Neuenburg location produces innovative drug dispensing systems made of thermoplastics. Precision injection molded parts are assembled by rotary and linear high speed lines utilizing ultrasonic welding, automatic packing, and robots.
Nearly a decade ago, the Nemera production team began to explore a more effective means of analyzing the rapid injection molding and assembly machinery in the Neuenburg plant, which had been malfunctioning at higher speeds without explanation. To overcome this problem the team began exploring ways to capture video images of the machinery operating, millisecond-by-millisecond, for analysis. This initiative is part of the company’s Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) that ensures that quality is built into the organization and processes involved in manufacturing. GMP at Nemera includes: control, quality, safety and effectiveness.
After researching several high-speed video cameras, three vendors were shortlisted including Mikrotron. Each vendor was asked to put their cameras through a battery of tests in identical scenarios. In the end, the Mikrotron MotionBLITZ® Cube high-speed camera was deemed best thanks to its sharp resolution, ease-of-mobility and built-in circular buffer that makes it possible to capture video without any connection to a PC. The camera also exceeded expectations with its modular software architecture and convenient internal triggering functions. The external control capability via machine signals also proved to be especially important, as did the unique ImageBLITZ auto trigger. ImageBLITZ reacts to specific changes in the image content and thereby captures even sporadically arising events quickly and accurately.
