Flexibility and cost are both current issues for global drug manufacturers, who often tailor their medicine to suit specific country requirements which results in small batches during the packaging process.
Now German-based packaging solutions company Multivac claims its new thermoforming packaging machine will give manufacturers the option of frequent reproducible and rapid format changes.
In effect, the machinery allows for fully automated packaging of sterile medical products, with GMP (good manufacturing practice).
The works
In its designs, Multivac created a new way of ordering the machinery by moving installed units such as hoses, cables and valves from the interior to the rear.
A spokesperson for the company said: “In this way the machine is also optimised for the requirements of quick line clearance. The visibility and access into the machine have been further improved by these design measures.”
The creators also included Multivac’s previous innovation in the drawer system, which includes user-friendly interchangeable upper and lower sections, enabling all the format parts to be changed without the use of tools.
Quality or quantity?
Though the firm has promised large and small scale production, seemingly with the ability to change the format of packaging on whim, it insisted that all products will be of the highest caliber.
A spokesperson said: “The reliable and efficient packaging of sterile medical products and pharmaceutical drugs demands the very strict application of the highest quality standards.
“Multivac's user-friendly line-motion control via the HMI 2.0 operator interface, as well as the highly sensitive sensor technology of the machines, ensure that a consistently high product quality is maintained, as well as an overarching quality assurance and a track-and-trace function for meeting the serialisation and marking requirements of individual countries.“