The challenge
A sterile injectables line relied on three human inspectors per shift to catch cracks, particulate and fill-level faults. Escape rates rose predictably in the last hour of every shift, and a single batch recall would cost more than a year of inspection headcount.
What we did
We installed a Forge cell at the post-fill checkpoint: telecentric optics, controlled backlighting and a compact segmentation model running on an edge accelerator. The hard part was not the model — it was the lighting rig that made glass defects separable from reflections at 300 vials a minute. Rejects are actuated through the existing PLC, and every part keeps an inspection record for audit.
“The lighting design is what made it work. Two vendors before them tried to solve it with a better model.”