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Healthcare industry benefits from dimensional measurement at the micro scale

Measurement points during the tactile calibration of the needle carried out by the collaborator Werth Messtechnik

Insulin needle becomes calibrated reference standard for Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk.

The insulin needle, used by an ever increasing number of people with diabetes, is made from stainless steel with inner and outer diameters of only 150 µm and 240 µm, respectively. Several billions of these needles are produced every year, each of which has to be measured in order to check that it complies with the strict quality regulations of the medical industry. This represents a challenging task for dimensional measurement.

EMRP project IND59 Multi-sensor metrology for microparts in innovative industrial products addressed the problems related to the high-accuracy measurement of small complex features of microparts. The consortium, with support from Novo Nordisk, provided the company with a calibrated reference standard which allows for traceability for the measurement of the inner and outer dimensions of all other needles during production. "The availability of such a reference standard will help to optimize costs of the needle production by improving the quality control process applying traceable measurements with high accuracy" stated the project coordinator.