The Evolution of Packaging

Packaging traditionally see-saws between flexibility and turnkey approach, more so in the pharma sector. Packaging companies have had to however change their focus and innovate as the race against the pandemic enters its second year. Here is a brief look at what the sector has been doing.

- Kruti Bharadva

The pharmaceuticals industry is at the core of the manufacturing capabilities of any country and this importance has been brought to the forefront in an unprecedented manner. With the pandemic calling upon all industries to bring into action their very best innovation and resourcefulness skills, there is no doubt that the one sector which has been in the spotlight is the pharma and ancillary industries. This pressure to develop a vaccine and much needed other medicines also came with an impetus to the pharma packaging industry to keep pace, and in many cases, evolve at a greater speed –to get the medicines to the end-user in a safe, hygienic and efficient manner. There is no doubt that the past year has seen considerable use of technological concepts in pharma packaging solutions.

Innovations at its Best

The Marchesini Group, an Italian based company, has introduced the ultra-technological blister line which includes the Integra 520 V and the fast bundler FA 04. Boasting of delivering 520 blisters and 500 cartons per minute, the line can pack blisters into cartons and bundle them at high speed. The Integra 520 V integrates two machines — a thermoformer and a cartoner and is the fastest robotised integrated blister line ever created by the firm.

Equipped with features of its previous model — the Integra 320, the new line also comes with new pushers, a drum-type carton opener to deal with high speeds and a leaflet pick-and-place system. The blister line can be used for single-blister cartons and the blisters are inserted into the cartons by an ingenious product insertion unit, the MA 500. The company states that the MA 500 is designed to handle all kinds of carton closure: tuck-in or glued flap and various other combinations. The new fast bundler FA 04 can handle a production flow of 500 cartons per minute, arranged in 50 bundles of ten cartons.

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