The importance of probe interfaces
This paper will describe some of the efforts the Pharmaceutical the industry in general, are putting into the concepts of continuous manufacturing, married together with integrated analytics and advanced control systems. The combined technologies enable flexibility and rapid response to demand, and thus low inventory supply streams. The manufacturing plants occupy a small footprint, can be rapidly redeployed to markets anywhere in the world or withdrawn as needed. The capital items deployed are also portable, which allows for recovery of the capital expenditure by movement of the portable factory, to a new location as needed to fit demand, or product portfolio.
Integration of PAT’s into a continuous manufacturing framework is an essential part of the control system, that ensures reliability of manufacturing and predictability of supply. Integrated measurements ensure quality of the product, but also enables fast release, thus lowering of inventory.
NIR spectroscopy, particularly in diffuse reflectance mode using fiber optic probes is the PAT of choice for many of the critical measurements applied to continuous manufacturing. The ability to analyze moving powders streams, using fast diode array spectrometers is of fundamental importance. These fast instruments, coupled with well-engineered interfaces to control the presentation of the sample to the spectrometer, provide high quality measurements, in real-time to be used determine process conformity and product quality in a dynamic environment…