Packaging Automation, based in Cheshire in the UK, has applied its experience in heat sealing machinery to create the PA201 packaging machine specifically for use in laboratory testing, formulation development and market testing. At 40cm high and 70cm wide, the machine itself is quite compact and can be bench or floor mounted. It has a sliding base and is capable of forming, sealing and cutting pharmaceutical tablet and capsule blister and strip packs. The machine can also be used to cut, form and seal fully representative blister packs, and is able to heat-seal all conventional materials. The tooling size on the machine can also be changed fairly simply says the company, allowing operators to quickly switch from one pack size to another. Other features include a temperature controller, variable air pressure indicator and a seal dwell timer for use in heat-seal trials. As it is intended for packaging of small batches, special production runs and clinical trial samples, the machine itself manages about five packs a minute, and is suited to lab, pharmacy and hospital environments. "The machine costs around £10,000 [€14,700], which we believe is fairly competitive," Samantha Ashton, commercial manager at Packaging Automation, told In-PharmaTechnologist.com. The piece of equipment was only launched recently but has already generated interest from the pharma industry, according to the company. This new machine is a slight diversion for Packaging Automation, which established its reputation manufacturing machinery for the food industry and has customers including major supermarket chains Tesco, J Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer. Although the company has supplied machinery for the medical and orthopaedic sectors for a number of years, the firm is looking to expand its presence in the pharmaceutical packaging machinery arena. "This is our first machine targeted specifically at the pharmaceutical industry," said Ashton. "We've mainly been active in the food industry so far, but we're breaking into the medical and pharmaceutical industries which are likely to be more profitable for us - it's an add-on to the business, but a more profitable one." Operating out of its manufacturing site in Cheshire, the company exports its machines all over the world, and produces a range of volumetric, filling and sealing machines, conveyors and other equipment.
