Beatson Clark sets the standard

Beatson Clark has once again proved that it is the leading supplier of glass containers for the UK pharmaceutical industry by setting a new international standard for the production of Alpha Sirop bottles.

Alpha Sirops are industry standard bottles used by the pharmaceutical sector for medicines and syrups, and because Beatson Clark produces hundreds of thousands of them every year, the team headed up by Design Engineer Alan Haigh, noticed that there was a problem with the fill capacity brought this to the attention of the International Standards Organisation.

Alan Haigh explained: "Certain liquids require more neck space either for shaking the product before opening or because the filling process can make the product foam slightly, which makes the automated filling equipment believe the bottle is full when it is not.

"Because of these implications, most companies choose to purchase the next size in the range, which is not a problem in the case of smaller bottles because they increase in size in small increments. However, with the larger bottles they would have to jump up by between 50 and 200ml which would not be at all suitable."

Beatson Clark suggested alternations to the shoulders of the bottles so that while the size for packing etc remains the same, the brimful capacity is significantly increased. Following these recommendations the new ISO11418-2 standard for Alpha Sirops is now in place.