Innovation in production: small scale packaging
Pharmaceutical packaging machines mainly focus on large-volume products: Quantities of more than 100,000 units are standard. They are not working well for medicines that are produced and packaged only in small quantities, so-called microbatches. This is where conventional packaging machines are mostly inefficient due to the long setup and changeover times. A problem that production experts from Boehringer Ingelheim have been working on in recent years.
"There are currently no packaging machines on the market that are designed for microbatches in our process. And there is a great need for this," explains Janik Jack, FuturePack project manager at Boehringer Ingelheim. "For example, in the case of oncological preparations, small quantities of 20 to 30 units are often produced. This is why in 2019 we decided to develop our own packaging machine specifically designed for microbatches."
This development was done in cooperation with the special machine manufacturer Goldfuss engineering from Balingen, Germany and took almost three years. "It was time-intensive to find a suitable partner who was able to work with us to produce a machine according to our needs. This special machine is unique," says Jack. However, since March 2021, the new FuturePack machine has been packing small batches at the headquarter in Ingelheim, Germany.
What's special about FuturePack?
FuturePack is producing fully automated: it prepares itself, takes the blank unprinted binaries from the plastic tray, prints the desired layout and takes the blisters back into a tray. The machine produces marketable products from the first copy. With eight blisters per minute, the FuturePack is slower than conventional machines. Nevertheless, because the set-up and changeover times are significantly shorter than with conventional machines, the machine is much faster in the overall process. The FuturePack offers a high degree of flexibility thanks to its modular shuttle system. This can be flexibly adapted to changes, new products and strategies.
The FuturePack is also more sustainable. Immediate packaging of marketable goods avoid waste that would result from a conventional machine start. In addition, the automated printing system no longer works with printing mats, but rather reads the layout information via a Data Matrix code which loads a corresponding PDF file. This also helps to prevent waste.
"With the FuturePack we can further optimize our production network in the tablet production at Boehringer Ingelheim," reports Holger Holakovsky, Head of Production Solids Launch at the Ingelheim site. "Together with our partner Goldfuss, our colleagues from the project team have developed a machine that makes our work more efficient and sustainable. A good example of entrepreneurship within the company."
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