ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief review of the developments leading to and an understanding of the state of the art of integrated, automated liquid filling and packaging processing equipment that utilizes hybrid robotics. Electronic devices can be mixed and matched with mechanical motion cams with only a few changed parts. This mixing and matching is called hybrid robotics, which results in integrated, automated processing. A fully integrated, automated manufacturing system offers an ideal design with layout, machines, controls, materials, and, most importantly, people functioning at optimum efficiency. Since the food industry had already applied mass production techniques to manufacturing products for consumers, the pharmaceutical industry turned to them for processes that could be adapted to filling and packaging small doses. Aseptic liquid filling processes include prefeeding, washing, sterilizing, depyrogenation, accumulating, feeding, in-feed, nitrogen flushing, tare weighing, filling, checkweighing, stoppering, and nitrogen purging, capping, sealing, and tray-loading.
