The Vortex-i system measures the force and torque required to open twist-off closures, and will be of particular value for qulaity control in the pharmaceutical industry, said Mecmesin.

"Packaging engineers, designers and specifiers are well-aware of the vital contribution that that force and torque measurement systems can make to the early identification of potential design or production problems," it said in a statement.

Vortex-i enables quality engineers to develop sophisticated procedures and analyses to meet their particular product testing requirements, such as measuring those torques which characterise the performance of screw closurers, caps and lids.

For example, the system can be used to identify slip torque and bridge torque of tamper-evident closures, determining the release torque of vacuum closures, and measuring the peak torque to open push-and-twist or squeeze-and-twist child-resistant caps.

And within the pharmaceutical industry, Mecmesin says the role of its testing systems is not limited to evaluating the performance of packaging - applying tensile, compressive or torsional loads directly to pharmaceutical products and powders can also generate a wealth of information about quality. The company also sells products that can be used in tablet crush testing and to measure the foce need to push drugs out of blister packs.

Mecmesin force and torque testing systems are distributed worldwide; throughout the US and Canada availability is exclusively via Dillon-WeighTronix under the Quantrol brandname.