The Lighthouse Probe™ enables PAT

  • The main problem of in-on-line optical measurements and analysis methods is window fouling, which is often happening and leading to wrong analysis results, unwanted process stops and bad product quality.
  • Since on-line and in-line optical analysis becomes more and more important today, a reliable and robust solution for this problem is needed.
  • To ensure an optical detection without any problems during the process the Lighthouse Probe™ was developed.

The Lighthouse Probe™ comes in 3 different types:

  1. Manual probe
  2. Automated probe with mechanical window cleaning (optional wash)
  3. Automated CIP probe

The probes can be upgraded from manual to automated CIP alongside with the development of your product from laboratory to production. They are delivered to work with a variety of spectrometers eg.:

 

Benefits:

  • Time savings: The Lighthouse Probe™ can be used for realtime release. During the FAT of a Consigma™, the Lighthouse Probe™ was used. The moisture of the final material was available in real time while off-line lab analysis took one week to analyse only one third of the samples.
  • Resources savings: The difference in resources savings consumption during that same FAT was 2 man-week of lab analysis (and lab-consumables).
  • Materials savings: Because of the direct availability of the analyser data, deviation from the desired quality is detected immediately and corrections were made based on that data and the process moved back to optimal quality before even going out of spec. The offline analysis of one sample took 12 minutes (optimal case) so the minimal waste in case of a bad result is 5 kg (throughput of the machine being 25kg/hr).

Technical details:

  • Tubular Sapphire glass windows
  • Large observation area
  • Fibre Optic side viewing optical probe
  • Small probe diameter
  • Compact CIP skid
  • Customized probes
    • Various lengths
    • Various tips/noses
    • Portable versions
    • In-flow measurements
    • Multi-point/-depth

Summary
The Lighthouse Probe™ provides:

  • In-process window cleaning at any time.
  • Recalibration at any time during the process
  • Full CIP of wash housing and seal
  • Always a clear view inside, even in difficult conditions

Future developments

The Lighthouse Probe™ will develop further to a platform enabling PAT. Various developments are taken place simultaneously and more and more suppliers of optical analytical methods are joining. Please contact us for the latest improvements.

Ongoing developments:

  • Integration in data management systems such as SyntQ
  • Transmittance probe
  • Combination of different optical techniques
  • Imaging systems
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