Monitoring and Quality Improvement of Pharmaceutical Glass Container's Manufacturing Process

This paper introduces the complete development of an infrared temperature measurement system for the different critical points in the pharmaceutical glass-container manufacturing process using low-cost sensorial devices. The system is able to measure temperatures between 500degC and 1300degC for maximum rates approximating 150 containers per minute. The system directly detects the presence of a container through the measurement without requiring any proximity detectors. During the usage, the system has demonstrated high reliability and repeatability in its measurements, becoming an essential system for both the adjusting stage of the machine and the supervision of its operations.