Pharma glass defects - Part 42. Tooling mark

Hello everyone – welcome to part 42 of an ongoing series devoted to visual defects in pharma glass packaging.? PDA TR 43 does a great job of presenting a variety of defects that may be observed in vials, including a significantly upgraded collection of example images in the 2023 update.? With that said, it would be a mistake to assume that the image gallery is all-encompassing.? It’s simply not practical to include pictures that cover every possible variant of every visual defect.? Furthermore, it’s not unusual to see more than one related defect appear simultaneously in the same vial, which can further complicate the processes of identification and classification.? In my experience, the “Tooling Mark” is a good example of a defect that can be somewhat variable in appearance and commonly appears alongside Pressure Marks, Fire Marks, etc.? PDA TR 43 defines a Tooling Mark as “small rough indentations or marks on the exterior or interior of the finish”.? Figure 1 shows an example of Tooling Marks on the exterior surface of a vial flange.? I can run my fingers across the affected surface and actually feel the slight roughness produced by the defect, although I would consider this to be a relatively subtle version of a Tooling Mark.? You might also notice other features on the flange that have a finer, more feathery appearance.? I would likely characterize these as Pressure Marks, although the line between Tooling Marks and Pressure Marks can admittedly sometimes be blurry.

Tooling Marks are generally considered an aesthetic defect that is more relevant to the incoming inspection process (i.e., they are presumably obscured by the crimp seal placed on the vial after filling).? A visual limit sample can be used to classify Tooling Marks.? Anything that exceeds the severity of the limit sample is classified as a Minor defect, otherwise it considered an Acceptable Imperfection.

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