De-nest and present fragile filled glass vials / prefilled syringes for visual inspection
In aseptic fill-finish, filled glass vials and prefilled syringes must be removed from nests/tubs and presented (rotated/oriented) for 100% visual inspection for particulates, fill level, stopper/seal presence, cracks and cosmetic defects before packaging. Sanofi operates large vial-and-syringe filling lines (e.g. Swiftwater, Toronto) where inspection throughput can reach hundreds of containers per minute. The objects are thin-walled glass containing sterile drug product, fragile and easily chipped, with slip-prone wet/siliconized surfaces. The task sits between filling/stoppering and packaging. It is hard for a robot because the grasp must be gentle enough never to chip or crack glass yet secure enough to handle slick containers at speed, and because broken glass means contamination and batch loss. Equipment vendors emphasize 'gentle' de-nesting/re-nesting precisely because of this fragility. We identified this through our own research; we have not confirmed the specifics with the customer directly. This page is our researched read — a starting point for that conversation.
What the task is
RESEARCHED · our reconstructionIn aseptic fill-finish, filled glass vials and prefilled syringes must be removed from nests/tubs and presented (rotated/oriented) for 100% visual inspection for particulates, fill level, stopper/seal presence, cracks and cosmetic defects before packaging. Sanofi operates large vial-and-syringe filling lines (e.g. Swiftwater, Toronto) where inspection throughput can reach hundreds of containers per minute. The objects are thin-walled glass containing sterile drug product, fragile and easily chipped, with slip-prone wet/siliconized surfaces. The task sits between filling/stoppering and packaging. It is hard for a robot because the grasp must be gentle enough never to chip or crack glass yet secure enough to handle slick containers at speed, and because broken glass means contamination and batch loss. Equipment vendors emphasize 'gentle' de-nesting/re-nesting precisely because of this fragility.
Is this the actual task and sequence? What are the real tolerances, cycle rate, and reject criteria, and which steps are today's manual bottleneck? Answering these is what turns this from a researched signal into a validated use case.