Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1546206
June 2026 marked the 25th anniversary of the shipment of the first Next Generation Impactor— the NGI™. In the late 1990s, the NGI Consortium of pharmaceutical companies (see sidebar) defined the need for and the performance requirements for the NGI and awarded a contract to MSP Corporation (St. Paul, Minnesota, US) to devise a suitable impactor. 20 August 2026 Inhalation Recognizing the 25th anniversary of the Next Generation Impactor (NGI™): Early manufacturing considerations In this interview, Daryl Roberts and Jolyon Mitchell reflect on manufacturing considerations encountered during the early commercialization of the NGI. Editor's note June 2026 marked the 25th anniversary of the ship- ment of the first Next Generation Impactor—the NGI™. In the late 1990s, the NGI Consortium of pharmaceutical companies (see sidebar) defined the need for and the performance requirements for the NGI and awarded a contract to MSP Corpora- tion (St. Paul, Minnesota, US) to devise a suitable impactor. With substantial input from Consortium members, the NGI was then designed, patented and manufactured by MSP Corporation. e NGI has since become the preferred multi-stage impactor across the inhalation community. In April and August 2016, two members of the development team, Daryl Roberts, PhD, and Jolyon Mitchell, PhD, published a two-part series in Inhalation that discussed manufacturing consider- ations for the NGI. e first article focused on noz- zles while the second described collection cups and jet-to-plate distance. To recognize the NGI's 25th anniversary, Inhalation is happy to republish those articles in this issue, along with the following interview in which Daryl and Jolyon offer their insights and reflections on the early commercial manufacturing of the NGI. In addition, they have provided a brief reference list at the end of the interview. Our congratulations to the entire NGI team—the NGI Consortium, its representatives and MSP Cor- poration—for their critical collaboration and an out- standing invention! Vicki Schuman, Editor and Publisher, Inhalation: Daryl, what was your role in the manufacturing of the NGI? Daryl Roberts: I was the Project Leader inside MSP Corporation during the development of the NGI under the sponsorship of the NGI Consortium. As the project evolved, I came to know every detail about the design of the NGI and each machine shop that made each part, as well as how to assemble the final instrument. I also wrote the inspection proce- dures and pass/fail criteria for each part of the NGI. MSP was a small company in those days, probably fewer than 20 people with a highly skilled team of mechanical engineers and technicians who did the hands-on work. We also worked with machine shops in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota area. ere are real artisans in the world of machining and mechanical engineering. e precision and accuracy they can routinely achieve, to the thousandths of an inch, with high yields, is amazing. Inhalation: What were some of the biggest challenges in manufacturing the NGI? Daryl: Achieving the precision requirements for each and every part, including the nozzles. e nozzle precision at each stage is ± 1% of the nominal noz- zle diameter but not larger than 0.05 mm and not smaller than 0.01 mm. e contract machinists we worked with would do on-site, in-person inspections of the nozzles using our optical inspection instru-