Portable Raman Spectroscopy: An Improvement in the Raw Material Quality Identification Testing Method

Abstract

An external contract laboratory performs the identification testing method of raw materials for a pharmaceutical company. Performing this current activity affects the product release timeframe and represents a high-cost process to expedite the release of the results. It's in the company's interest to improve the current process with a cost-effective analysis by avoiding the time waste associated with sample preparation, processing, and travel time. The portable Raman spectroscopy method testing for raw materials was proposed as a possible option to perform in-house analysis and as a rapid data acquisition tool. Three raw materials were analyzed using the current process and the Raman method to compare the cycle time of each activity. This research showed that using portable Raman spectroscopy is an effective way to perform the identification testing of raw materials by reducing cost, lowering cycle time, and improving process results in one day instead of one week.KeyTerms⎯Cycle Time, Raman Spectroscopy, Raw Material, Testing Improvement.