Pharmaceutical and Medical Packaging News
Magazine
PMPN Article Index
Originally Published July 1999
CASE HISTORY
Self-Sufficient Thermoformer Heals the Blisters of Competition
A blister thermoformer changes over quickly to meet the high-volume needs of a contract packager.
With dozens of firms offering packaging services to the worldwide pharmaceutical industry, contract packaging is a competitive business. To keep its pharmaceutical manufacturer customers happy, a contract packager must offer more than a wide range of capabilities—the contractor must be able to deliver quality-packaged products quickly and consistently.
To maintain its industry position in blister capacity and packaging technology, Sharp (Conshohocken, PA) needed a blister thermoformer that could handle multiple packaging applications, produce a high number of blisters per minute, and change over quickly. The thermoformer also needed to be able to form both plastic and aluminum materials and to handle child-resistant lid stock, explains Dave Luken, vice president of operations at Sharp Conshohocken.
Sharp already has the largest volume of thermoformers from Uhlmann Packaging Systems (Towaco, NJ) in use, so the contract packager decided to investigate the equipment supplier's latest model, the UPS 1070. The 1070 is already being used in Europe by a few of the world's pharmaceutical giants—Merck, Wyeth, and Pfizer—and includes among its benefits fast changeover, less waste in both start-up and production operations, and a production rate of 600 blisters per minute. Requiring fewer operators than other types of thermoformers, the 1070 automatically monitors and adjusts itself during operation through the use of lasers and servomotors. It also maintains a database for product parameters that can be exactly reproduced months later with no start-up waste.
In May, Sharp installed two UPS 1070 models, the first and second 1070 models ever installed in the United States. The exact model is the UPS 1070 MTI, a multiple-stroke, intermittent-motion thermoformer. According to Bob Hartwig, Uhlmann's director of sales and marketing, "Intermittent-motion platen-forming and -sealing thermoformers lend themselves to the large style of blisters used in the United States." Larger than those the drug industry uses in Europe, these blisters help over-the-counter products maximize their shelf space, accommodate the style of physician sample packages that are designed with windows and reinforcing ribs, and produce the double cavities currently used for many common cold remedies.
The intermittent-motion thermoformer can produce aluminum-aluminum and polypropylene blister packages, and peel-or-push child-resistant lid stock runs markedly better on a platen sealer, says Hartwig, who expects to have about five more UPS 1070 models installed at major U.S. drug firms by the end of this year.
In the meantime, Sharp has already enjoyed a rapid growth in its business, says Luken. "We chose to plan for growth by purchasing the thermoformers in advance of actual market need, so we are ready for the millennium with the latest technology and ample capacity."
