Rapid & Precise Moisture Analysis for Healthcare Products

Introduction

Healthcare products come in many forms and are made by a wide variety of processes. However, the one parameter that nearly all products share is the need for precise control of moisture content. Pills with too much moisture will agglomerate, while those with too little moisture may fail to hold their form. Water-based liquid products experience changes in consistency and dosage when moisture content fluctuates batch-to-batch.

Moisture analysis in the pharmaceutical industry is widely accomplished using infrared gravimetric moisture balances. Traditional infrared moisture balances are a relatively rapid approach to verifying moisture content, but can take 20 minutes or more to complete. Furthermore, traditional moisture balances only measure the temperature of the drying cavity, not of the sample itself. The inability to directly measure sample temperature can easily result in scorched samples and inaccurate results.

The SMART Q^TM infrared moisture analyzer is uniquely designed to accurately and rapidly measure moisture content in a wide variety of healthcare products. By combining active cavity ventilation and patented quartz-halogen drying technology with direct sample temperature feedback, the SMART Q analyzes samples up to 3-times faster than traditional infrared moisture balances with no risk of burning. With a highly accurate 4-place analytical balance and 3-digit moisture readout, the SMART Q provides reliable, repeatable results in approximately 5 minutes. For even faster test times, the SMART Q can be upgraded to the SMART 6, which combines microwave and infrared technology for the fastest direct moisture analysis on the market.

This study demonstrates that the SMART Q can rapidly analyze a wide range of healthcare products for moisture content with an average difference of 0.002% compared to oven reference results.