Tooling inspection system for multi-tip tablet punch

A tooling inspection and analysis system for measuring tooling quality of a multi-tip tablet punch having a barrel with a plurality of tips each having a tip cup for forming a tablet, comprising:

• a base;
• a carriage assembly having a cavity for supporting a multi-tip tablet punch, which when in use is aligned with an X-axis, and a Y-axis linear slide mounting the carriage assembly to the base for movement relative to the base along a Y-axis;
• a sensor adapted to measure distance;
• a database storing data for a plurality of multi-tip tablet punches and the stored data for a particular punch from the plurality of multi-tip tablet punches defines orientation of each tip relative to a center of the multi-tip tablet punch;
• and
• a programmable controller operatively connected to the carriage assembly and the sensor, the programmable controller obtaining data from the database for the multi-tip tablet punch being tested and being programmed to move the at least one of the carriage assembly and the sensor relative to each other to determine orientation of the multi-tip tablet punch being tested in the cavity relative to a reference position and determine offset from the reference position and to automatically align the sensor responsive to the offset to measure a working length of each tip of the multi-tip tablet punch being tested.

A tooling inspection and analysis system for measuring tooling quality of a multi-tip tablet punch having a barrel with a plurality of tips each having a tip cup for forming a tablet, comprising:

• a base;
• a carriage assembly having a cavity for supporting a multi-tip tablet punch, which when in use is aligned with an X-axis, the carriage assembly having a plate mounted in the cavity and an adjustment screw to adjust orientation of the plate to adjust alignment of the multi-tip tablet punch in the cavity relative to the X-axis, and a Y-axis linear slide mounting the carriage assembly to the base for movement relative to the base along a Y-axis;
• a sensor adapted to measure distance to an object;
• and
• a programmable controller operatively connected to the Y-axis linear slide and the sensor, the programmable controller being programmed to move the carriage assembly to align the sensor to measure a gauge block mounted in the cavity to determine alignment of the plate relative to the X-axis responsive to adjustment of orientation of the plate.