Leak Detection Advancement Improves Food and Pharmaceutical Packaging

Leak detection can literally make or break your success in food and pharmaceutical packages. In his presentation “Answering Food & Pharma Problems to Missed Package Leaks” during 2020 Virtual Engineering Week, Cole Laux, key account manager with Inficon,gives you a rundown of the company’s Contura S-Series leak detector, which can be used to test rigid packages as well as modified-atmosphere and other types of flexible packages.

Laux presents benefits in five areas: sustainability, standardization, shelf life, human error, and innovation. The unit’s vacuum decay method eliminates the water, test/tracer gas, or compressed air of other methods. The test creates and measures differential pressure between the atmosphere around the package and the interior of the package.

Benefits include accurate detection — in seconds — of gross leaks in packaging with little headspace, as well as tiny leaks below 10 micrometers. A touchscreen interface, barcode reader, and USB port address digital requirements, including data export for trending and continuous improvement.