Medical Device Link.

Originally Published PMPN February 2003

Bags and Pouches

Companies are looking to converters to supply high-performance bags and pouches without high prices.

Kassandra Kania, Managing Editor

Perfecseal offers UV-barrier film (right) and poly/nylon/poly film (left), which is used in its breather bags.

Many medical companies are demanding more from their bags and pouches. As a result, converters are being asked to provide bags and pouches with improved strength and integrity, cleanliness, better barrier protection, and peelability. 

The functions of a typical package, says Gary Bobko, vice president of marketing and sales for Glenroy (Menomonee Falls, WI), are containment, protection, product promotion, and communication. With regard to bags and pouches, “the limits of these functions are being expanded by our customers,” he notes. For example, customers are demanding more-stringent containment and additional protection, specifically in terms of shelf life, he says. 

But, at the same time, companies are trying to keep costs low. “A lot of companies continue to look to pouches to save them money,” says Jeff Murak, director of sales and marketing for Oliver Products (Grand Rapids, MI). “Pouches and bags allow the customer to minimize packaging costs and still print variable information, if necessary,” says Bill Singer, vice president of marketing for Perfecseal, a Bemis company (Oshkosh, WI). And for companies that produce low volumes, premade bags and pouches can offer a cost-saving alternative to automated processes. “Customers typically purchase pouches and bags when medical device volumes are too low to be suitable for automated packaging, like form-fill-seal,” says Singer.

High Barriers

Interest in high-barrier pouches is growing. In the past, some companies that relied on porous packaging for sterilization needs delayed introducing new moisture-sensitive products that required good barrier protection because they didn’t want to incur the costs of changing their established sterilization methods. 

Beacon Converters (Saddle Brook, NJ) makes barrier packaging for all types of sterilization. A foil header pouch can be used for a product that must be EtO sterilized. “The header strip made of Tyvek at the open end of the package allows for breathability during sterilization,” says Kathleen Daly Mascolo, Beacon’s vice president, “and once the product is sterilized, it is sealed off and removed. The final package is now a barrier to moisture and light, and allows the protection needed for the product.” Tolas Health Care Packaging (Feasterville, PA), Technipaq (Crystal Lake, IL), and Perfecseal also offer these types of pouches.
 
If porous packaging isn’t needed for sterile purposes, companies can choose foil-to-foil or film-to-film packages. Murak has noticed a trend away from Tyvek and paper. Perfecseal’s Singer reports an increase in the use of poly/nylon/poly films, due to their improved puncture and abrasion resistance. The company offers barrier films, like Al2O3-coated films to replace foil. “This film is transparent yet offers similar barrier properties to foil laminates,” he explains. “We also offer UV-barrier films for things like catheter packaging. The UV-barrier film prevents damage to the catheter’s polymeric structure. The transpareny assures the surgeon that the catheter is undamaged before the package is opened.” Beacon Converters also offers clear UV-barrier packaging. According to Singer, use of this type of film is on the rise.

Opening Performance

As materials increase in strength, opening features need to improve so that the end-user can still access the product, says Mike Oberkirch, director of marketing, Rexam Medical Pack-aging (Mundelein, IL). “This is a challenge, to say the very least,” he comments. One of the areas that Rexam is focusing on is peel systems. “Package cleanliness is a significant issue for medical devices, especially implantable or invasive devices. We are making efforts to improve the cleanliness of our packaging products. If the peel opening feature creates or contributes particulate matter when the package is opened, it defeats the purpose.” Rexam will be launching new products using their patented Core-Peel technology to address this issue.

Tolas offers a variety of peel pouches for easy opening. For instance, the corner-peel pouch has a corner-peel feature that makes it easier to grasp and pull open. It also provides more usable interior space than the standard chevron-peel pouch. The rounded-corner pouch, typically used as an inner pouch, has curved corners rather than square ones to reduce the risk of cutting other pouches and causing injury when opening the pouch.

But not all companies need easy-to-peel features. In fact, some want just the opposite. Tolas offers nonpeelable weld seal pouches, which create a stronger seal bond than typically found in the standard chevron peel pouch. 

Adhesive Savings

In addition to stronger seals, customers want economical seals. Oliver Products applies adhesive to its header bags in a cost-effective manner that reduces the amount of adhesive. It also reduces the size of the header and speeds up the sterilization cycle. According to Murak, the header bags are able to go through the sterilization cycle much quicker because they use a hot-melt adhesive applied in a dot pattern. When a water-based adhesive is used, it is coated evenly across the Tyvek, Murak explains. “What we do is we apply our adhesive in small dots, and when you’re sealing [the bag], those dots merge together to form a continuous seal. But the portion in the middle of the package where the ad-hesive isn’t heated maintains a dot pattern.” This allows the product to off-gas quickly during sterilization because the dots are not completely shutting off the interior of the pouch. As a result, the company’s header bags offer a smaller header strip and thus a cost savings as the gas flows through it at a much quicker rate, explains Murak. 

Maintaining Quality 

While companies are concerned with cutting costs, they don’t want to cut corners either. “One of the key features customers are looking for today is package toughness,” says Oberkirch. “In some cases, they simply want to better protect their product. Others are looking for ways to downgauge their packaging for cost purposes,” he says. “Ease of entry, assurance of package and seal integrity door to door, and cleanliness are other key desirables.” 

“Many customers are under tremendous cost-reduction pressures,” says Singer. “Consequently, they look to their packaging suppliers to determine cost-saving options. We’ve been able to react with films that are downgauged and still maintain customers’ critical characteristics like seal strengths, burst values, etc.” Efforts such as these will help ensure that companies do not have to compromise when choosing a bag or pouch best suited to their product. 

Copyright ©2003 Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News