Automated Medicine Packaging Machine

Concept & Ideation ⟶ Design & Development ⟶ Validation & Compliance ⟶ Manufacturing & Field Trials Support ⟶ Sustenance

Client's Overview:

A well-established industrial group diversifying to bring innovative service in the healthcare & pharmacy market in India.

Challenges:

Development of an Special Purpose Automated Medicine Packaging Machine used for packaging medicine/tablets prescribed for treatment of multi-systemic infectious as well as chronic diseases.

Solution & Approach:

Alpha ICT was awarded the entire end-to-end product development work under an Outsource Product Development model.

The special purpose automated machine was comprehensively designed and developed covering-

  • Conceptualization of the product idea to convert into a feasible product architecture
  • Development & integration of multiple sub-systems combining the proven & emerging technologies around Embedded Electronics, Mechatronics, HMI & Software Applications
  • Key functional requirements –
    • Multi-Dose Dispensing to manage both open and foiled medication
    • Managing multiple packaging orders & patient prescriptions with real-time connectivity to back-end ordering system

Results

The outsource product development engagement covered end-to-end machine development-

  • Product Conceptualization & Functional Specification & Requirements finalization
  • Product Architecture Finalization & Prototype Development covering embedded electronics, mechatronics & automation to include-
    • Identifying the required medicine pack presence on the loading bay
    • Dispensing medicine pack from the loader to the conveyor and sensing the exact dispensed quantity
    • Conveyer automation
    • Automating the packaging mechanism (polythene bags)
    • Printing Dosage information interfacing Thermal Transfer Overprinted device (TTO printer)
    • Industrial Display with touchscreen HMI interface development, Software development & implementation
    • Interfacing with the back-end ordering system over APIs
    • Alerts & Notifications for critical system failures
  • Product verification & validation
  • Final Product Development & Support for Manufacturing Release
  • Deployment, On-site installation & commissioning support
HMI Display Design
special purpose machine development

Outcome:

The outsource product development engagement delivered the functional product with back-end system connectivity, which successfully-

  • Retrieved the GP’s digitized patient prescription for dispensing the medicines/tablets as per the prescribed doses
  • Performed packaging & printing to deliver the specific orders covering dosage information along with medicine expiry details on the medicine packs.
  • Displayed the status of Packaging Summary and Overall System Health Monitoring over a modern HMI
  • Single Board Computer
  • Thermal Printer for printing patient details on pouches
  • IR curtain sensor for pill sensing and detection
  • HMI resistive display for status monitoring
  • Controlled pouching machine tailored for requirements
  • Container & Conveyor Belt to transfer the pill into the pouch
  • RFID Reader & Chip to notify if the pill does not enter the pouch
  • Air Ejection Mechanism to remove a stuck pill
  • Communication Interfaces:
    • RS485 (RFID Reader ↔ Control Box)
    • RS232 (Touch Screen ↔ Printer)
  • I2C
  • Embedded C
  • Python
  • UI Design for HMI
 
 
 

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