Manufacturers have developed innovative insulin cartridges designed for convenient self-treatment. Consumers expect these injecting pen and cartridge systems to be robust against accidental impacts. The disposable cartridges must also be packaged effectively to resist impact strikes commonly experienced during shipment.
A glass cartridge broken during shipping or while in use can cause injury, and prevent the patient from receiving the proper dose of necessary medication. For the manufacturer, the patient's resulting loss of confidence in the product can be the most harmful effect of such failures. The products must be thoroughly tested for impact performance prior to launch into the consumer marketplace.
For this low-energy test, we used our CEAST 9310, instrumented with a 500 lb force capacity Piezo sensor, a custom 6.5 mm diameter hemispherical tup insert, DAS (Data Acquistuion System) and Visual Impact software. To represent different injector pen designs and styles, we created custom V-groove and cantilevered support fixtures. Since the material under test was organic in nature and the energy necessary to fracture the parts was anticipated to be low, both the crosshead weight and drop height were kept as low as possible.
Vials were tested along the central horizontal axis in the same area where they would be gripped or supported in the delivery mechanism. Two different style vials were tested in the identical fashion to see how differences in material thickness, grade of material and overall vial design would react to same impact event.