MULTIVAC at Compamed 2011: Packaging sterile medical products with process reliability

The demands placed on the packaging of sterile medical items and pharmaceutical products are continually growing. There is also a requirement for packs with modified atmosphere or reduced oxygen content. For this reason MULTIVAC is showing at the Compamed trade show in Düsseldorf three high-performance models, one from each of its product lines of thermoforming packaging machines, traysealers and chamber machines, all three models of which are designed for the special requirements of the medical and pharmaceutical industries.

The packaging solutions to be shown by MULTIVAC do not only ensure a reliable, reproducible and traceable packaging procedure. They also enable a high degree of individualisation to be achieved in the pack content and its product coding.

With the R 145 thermoforming packaging machine in MULTIVAC's Clean Design, the company will be showing a particularly efficient model for the packaging of sterile medical products in small and medium batch sizes. Due to the wide selection of available dies and its modular construction, the R 145 can easily be adapted to changing requirements. The R 145 is also very flexible when it comes to the use of different packaging materials. Both flexible and semi-rigid materials as well as aluminium laminates can be run on the machine. The R 145 generates pack seals with higher peel strengths, which ensures that maximum seal quality and pack integrity are assured.

Shown on the R 145 will be the MR296 TI direct web printer with the Wolke m600 printing unit. The high quality print resolution with HP Thermal Inkjet technology produces perfect coding on paper and Tyvek®. The printer operation is completely integrated into the machine control of the packaging machine. Among the advantages of HP Thermal Inkjet technology are minimal changeover times, low maintenance and long service intervals.

In addition to the R 145, MULTIVAC will also be exhibiting the T 260 traysealer, which was developed for the packaging of delicate medical products in small and medium batch sizes. The T 260 is designed for installation in cleanroom environments and can process the widest range of packaging materials. The measuring and control technology, as well as all the other equipment in the T 260 traysealer model, provide a seamlessly programmable packing process, which is reproducible, measurable and capable of visualisation. A gas flushing facility is integrated as standard so that MAP packs can be produced without additional equipment.

Process reliability and recording capability will also be demonstrated in the case of the C 400 TC, a special chamber machine with temperature controlled sealing bar for sterile medical products. The identification of the individual stages and operators is assured through barcodes and RFID, so that the packaging procedure is constantly monitored, safeguarded and recorded.

All the machines to be shown are equipped with MULTIVAC's HMI 2.0 user interface. The user-friendly line-motion control, and the highly sensitive sensor technology of the machines, ensure that a consistently high product quality is maintained, as well as an overarching quality assurance and a track-and-trace function for meeting the serialisation and marking requirements of individual countries.