With its recent acquisition of a significant share in Canada-based Smart Skin Technologies, German glass packaging manufacturer Schott (schott.com) aims to leverage drone technology to raise packaging quality and reduce breakage on filling lines.

By mimicking the shape of vials, cartridges and syringes, Smart Skin’s drones, which are equipped with hundreds of sensors, can measure how packaging spins and tilts as it moves through the production line. These measurements are then sent via Bluetooth to the company’s Quantifeel software, which creates heat maps and records videos of events to help companies understand the forces that their packaging is exposed to on filling and packaging lines.

Among the benefits of the technology are reduced breakage, scuffing, downtime and maintenance costs, as well as increased lifecycles of returnable packaging, Smart Skin says.