NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) 20030099665: A Closer Look at Quality Control

1 Pages·0.02 MB·English

by  NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

A Closer Look at Quality Control
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pectrometers, which are durable, lightweight, and making it a powerful new tool for quality control and
compact instruments, are a requirement for NASA process troubleshooting.
deep space science missions, especially as NASA The Luminar 5030 can be applied to materials such as
powders, polymer pellets, paper goods, fruits and grains,
strives to conduct these missions with smaller spacecraft.
liquids, and vines. The tool performs measurements for
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) awarded the
moisture, active ingredients, coating weight, and blend
Brimrose Corporation of America a Small Business
assays, as well as for fat, sugar, and protein. The
Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop a
Luminar 5030 can be used for monitoring and control
compact, rugged, near-infrared spectrometer for possible
processes in the chemical and petrochemical industry,
future missions.
the inspection of tablets and powder mix control in the
Spectrometers are of particular importance on NASA
pharmaceutical industry, and composition monitoring in
missions because they help scientists to identify the the food and beverage industry. For example, Brimrose
make-up of a planet’s surface and analyze the molecules markets the Luminar 5030 to wineries, enabling vintners
in the atmosphere. Minerals and molecules emit light of to analyze grapes prior to producing wine. The tool’s
various colors. The light, identified as spectra, is diffi- versatility extends from the laboratory to the production
cult to see, and spectrometers, which are essentially spe- floor and field, providing nondestructive and contact/
cial cameras that collect the separate colors of light in an noncontact testing and inspection.
object, allow scientists to identify the different materi- In the pharmaceutical industry, Brimrose’s optical
als. For example, spectrometers can help scientists spectrometers have passed Good Manufacturing Practice
requirements for hardware and software, granting them
determine whether soil was created from lava flows or
Food and Drug Administration certification for drug
from meteorites.
manufacturing by both AstraZeneca, of Wilmington,
Brimrose’s work for JPL led to a spectrometer that
Delaware, and Pfizer, Inc., of New York, New York.
created a significant breakthrough in optical spectrome-
AstraZeneca has chosen Brimrose systems as the only
try. As a result, the Baltimore, Maryland-based compa-
process control spectrometer to be used for manufactur-
y ny developed the commercially available Luminar 5030
g ing its pharmaceutical drugs.
o Mini Spectrometer. This innovation is a hand-held Brimrose is continuing to partner with NASAthrough
ol analytical instrument utilizing Brimrose’s high perform- the SBIR program. The company is in the process of
n ance Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter-Near Infrared tech- developing a space-qualified optical spectrometer
h
c nology. The product delivers rapid, multi-component intended for use onboard the land rover vehicles for
e
analysis for a wide variety of commercial applications, investigating the surface and subsurface of Mars.
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u The Luminar 5030 Mini Spectrometer enables vintners to
d analyze grapes prior to producing wine.
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