NEWS
High-speed robotics and downstream automation manufacturer G-Mat (Coventry, UK) has recently developed machines for the pharmaceutical and medical packaging industry after traditionally focusing almost exclusively on plastic injection molding.
G-Mat developed and supplied Organon’s (Roseland, NJ) Shellpak packaging machines. G-Mat supplied the molding automation for Shellpak, distributed by MeadWestvaco (Glen Allen, VA). G-Mat and MeadWestvaco have a long history of projects, and it was MeadWestvaco that introduced the representatives from G-Mat to Organon.
“Our relationship began with Organon’s selection of MeadWestvaco for the development and supply of Shellpak packaging,” says Jon Harris, G-Mat sales manager. “We have a relatively long and established supplier relationship with MeadWestvaco both in the USA and the [United Kingdom], having supplied the firm with molding automation for a large number of plastic-molded products previously. As a result of our relationship, G-Mat was selected to supply the molding automation for the new Shellpak.”
Organon’s need for late-stage customization posed a new challenge to G-Mat, as the machine design started as an unproven concept. Obstacles that G-Mat faced were product handling, unloading blisters from transport cartridges, feeding them through the required print and inspection processes, and loading them back into transport cartridges at the required throughput, Harris says.
Designed from scratch, G-Mat completed Organon’s machine in 30 weeks, Harris says, from a blank piece of paper to a tested and ready-to-use product.
The order continues G-Mat’s trend of growing its business in the pharmaceutical and medical packaging industry. G-Mat has seen its business shift recently. Traditionally focused in the plastic injection molding industry, specifically high-performance robots and automation processes, G-Mat has developed a rapidly increasing percentage of business from the pharmaceutical and medical packaging world.
“Historically, with only one or two exceptions, most of our business has been outside the pharmaceutical and medical packaging sector,” Harris says. “Over the last 18 to 24 months, we have realized significant growth, both in the pharmaceutical and moreso in the medical devices industry, of which a proportion would be considered packaging.”
One particular sector of G-Mat’s growth has been digital ink-jet printing. “It offers enormous potential as a bolt-on technology to complement existing production lines, as a technology integrated into larger, more-complex automation lines, or as a stand-alone technology as with the blister printing machine developed for Organon,” Harris says.
These developments, along with Organon’s recent order, have made the medical and pharmaceutical industries G-Mat’s number one growth area, Harris says.
As G-Mat’s reputation has grown within the plastics industry, he says, its name has started reaching more specialized manufacturers of intricate high-precision components. These manufacturers are turning to the experience and expertise that G-Mat offers in high-performance demold and downstream automation with a particular interest in product handling.
