Massimo Crudeli
In the pharmaceutical industry, precision and accuracy are critical. To ensure that the finished product meets the highest quality and safety standards, you must meticulously and efficiently weigh and track each component or item.
Commonly, the counting process is carried out by visual inspection or manually counting individual units. When small-size items such as tablets or capsules need to be counted in large quantities, it is necessary to guarantee a fast procedure while maintaining accurate results. Counting by weighing can be a reliable approach in this situation.
The process involves a few simple steps, including using a scale to weigh a sample of the relevant material and calculating the total number of items in a container or part of it (which will be used as needed) based on the known weight of the single items.
This technique is generally considered to be more accurate and faster than other counting methods. However, it can only be used with objects of uniform size and weight. Otherwise, the results will not be correct.
The 'counting by weighing' process in STAEDEAN Life Sciences Weighing and Dispensing solution
The STAEDEAN Life Sciences Weighing and Dispensing solution provides the capability to define unit conversion factors between units of measure. In this way, it is possible to use a scale to weigh materials that have a unit of measure different from the one specified for the item.
With the same logic, it is possible to define the default weight of a part of the item (e.g., capsules, tablets) and its unit of measurement and use them to estimate the number of pieces within a given container. The first step is determining the weight of a part of the item or a sample of it. In our weighing and dispensing solution, the user can obtain this information in several ways:
- By considering the reference part weight defined at the item level
- By determining the average part weight by weighing a finite and known number of pieces and converting it into the weight of the individual unit
For example, if the user gets a result of 100 grams after placing 10 tablets on balance, you can assume that the average weight of the single tablet is equivalent to 10 grams.
If necessary, the system can dictate the preferential use of either method. To ensure maximum accuracy, a tolerance can be set such that if the average part weight obtained has a value that differs significantly from that defined at the item level, the user is not allowed to proceed with the final count.
Once the weight of the single unit has been derived, the subsequent action is weighing the whole container. At this point, the conversion is based on the division between the total weight of the batch and the weight of the single part.
To make the process even more straightforward, STAEDEAN Life Sciences Weighing and Dispensing solution allows the user to choose whether to display the overall weight (in grams or its multiples) on the screen or the number of pieces from which the lot is composed, or which are being weighed.
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Massimo Crudeli