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Right from clinical trials to drug packaging, all aspects for pharmaceutical industry are subject to strict quality control regulations. The process of selecting and validating appropriate packaging for pharmaceutical products takes a significant effort. Pharmaceutical package testing is conducted to ensure the suitability of drug packaging for its intended use. It included all components containing the product, even if they are in direct contact with the drug or not. As such, containers should be capable of retaining the healing properties of the drug product throughout its shelf life or until it is administered. Even a minute breach in container closure integrity can compromise the safety and effectiveness of the drug product. This realization has prompted pharmaceutical product manufacturers to conduct appropriate container closure integrity tests to ensure product sterility throughout its lifecycle.

Why use Vacuum Decay technology for pharmaceutical package testing?

PTI’s Vacuum Decay technology is a non-destructive container closure integrity testing method, capable of evaluating both liquid and air-filled containers and detecting defects as small as below 1 micron. Non-destructive testing provides a greater understanding of package quality while also reducing waste. Waste reduction delivers a fast return on investment and brings operations closer to green initiatives. Proven to be the most practical and sensitive vacuum-based leak test method, Vacuum Decay technology is an ASTM test method, FDA consensus standard, eliminating false positives and subjective results associated with manual visual inspection. Vacuum Decay technology can identify leaks in sealed rigid, semi-rigid and flexible packaging made of non-porous or porous materials. It provides reliable, accurate and repeatable test results that ensure deterministic package testing and leak detection.

Vacuum Decay technology operates by placing sample packages in a closely fitting evacuation test chamber, which is equipped with an external vacuum source. Single or dual vacuum transducer technology is used to monitor the test chamber for both the level of vacuum as well as the change in vacuum over a predetermined test time. The changes in absolute and differential vacuum indicate the presence of leaks and defects within the package. Vacuum Decay technology is a practical alternative and significant improvement to destructive test methods and can precisely detect leaks as small as 5 microns, identifying process issues before they become critical, avoiding catastrophic quality deviations.

Benefits of PTI’s Vacuum Decay Test System

• Better process control - reliable and sensitive leak detection of quality critical defects.
• The advantage of test results that are both qualitative (pass/fail) and quantitative (Statistical data with each test result).
• Repeatable test results demonstrate the reliability of the instrument and test data.
• Cost savings - Eliminates product loss, waste and mess of both packaging and coffee that results from using destructive testing methods
• Using a non-destructive leak test method allows an increase in the number of products samples tested.
• Rapid test cycle and minimal training required to operate tester.
• Rapid ROI due to substantial cost savings and elimination of product loss.