Serialization! It’s on the mind of every pharmaceutical contract packager right now – Apace Packaging is no exception. To meet the fast approaching deadlines and increase production volume, Apace turned to NJM and installed a new high-speed bottling line with track-and-trace capabilities last year.
“The NJM line achieves almost three times the throughput [as our other bottling lines] with far fewer workers,” said Wendell Bell, Director of Operations at Apace. “This level of automation protects our product quality and keeps costs down.”
Apace’s new line packages a wide range of solid-dose products in round, square or rectangular bottles in sizes from 40 to 1500 cc. Bottles can be outfitted with different types of desiccants, fillers, caps and labels. Serialization data is added to the bottle labels with either a thermal transfer printer or laser obliteration printer, and bottles can either be bundled or packed directly into cases.
“Our goal was to think of virtually any bottling scenario that a customer might bring to us, so we could always respond ‘yes’ to their request,” said Patrick Ferguson, General Manager at Apace.
The integrated line starts with a CFI-622*8 Tablet Counter to achieve high speeds with extreme servo-driven accuracy. Bottles are capped and retorqued with two beltorques, which quickly yet gently rotate and tighten caps using two pairs of belts each. Next, an AUTOCOLT IV pressure sensitive labeler with nearly every available option maximizes versatility. A track-and-trace solution from Optel improves compliance and productivity while facilitating 4 levels of serialization and 3 levels of aggregation.
“Our equipment from NJM always does exactly what they promise it will do,” said Bell. “At the end of the day, we value the quality of their solutions and the impeccable customer service they provide.”
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