Dark Field Inspection

Defects in pharmaceutical glass items such as cracks may have a significant impact on the integrity of glass packaging, e.g. air or contaminants may come into contact with medicine through a crack, leading to contaminated medicine and potential injuries. This must be avoided and is one of the reasons the pharmaceutical industry wants to minimise or eliminate cracks in pharmaceutical containers. In this article, Ivo Brouwer introduces us to the use of backlighting, dark field illumination and LED technology for the inspection of glass containers.