PHARMACEUTICAL LASER DRILLING SYSTEM WITH MEANS FOR CHECKING THE CORRECT ORIENTATION OF EACH DOSAGE

摘要

A laser drilling system (10) forms an opening in the coating of a pharmaceutical dosage form and includes an orientation check assembly to check the correct orientation of each dosage form before the laser drilling is performed, a debris removal assembly to reduce buildup of and reduce exposure to drilling debris and a quality control assembly to verify that the opening formed conforms to predetermined specifications. The orientation check assembly comprises first and second link conveyors, one first color sensor (52) located adjacent the first link conveyor and generating a signal representative of the color of the pharmaceutical dosage form, and a rejection station located along said first link conveyor for ejecting said dosage form in response to said signal generated by said color sensor (52).