Towards Quality Control in Pharmaceutical Packaging: Screening Folded Boxes for Package Inserts

We applied a recently developed, ultrafast terahertz measurement technique to screen folded cardboard boxes for package inserts. The presence or absence of an enclosed leaflet could be detected unambiguously in samples moving at velocities up to 21 m/s and, depending on the sample, up to an area overlap of 50–60%. The simple, robust measurement setup may pave the way to new applications of terahertz technology for quality control in pharmaceutical packaging.