Hugo Beck, a manufacturer of horizontal flowpack, film packaging and post-print processing machines, is seeing increasing demand in the medical goods and pharmaceutical sectors for flowpack machines that ensure the highest degree of air-tightness.
Flowpack machines are ideal for packaging applications where a hermetic seal is a pre-requisite to ensuring the hygiene of the final product. Hugo Beck’s flowpack X-D range guarantees complete air-tightness and was recently specified by a leading manufacturer of petri dishes to package a wide range of sizes and bundle variants. Driven by the growing demand for testing food and workplace hygiene, particularly in emerging markets, the number of petri dishes required is seeing a sharp increase. Hygienic packaging is vital in order to meet stringent cleanroom standards, with 100% air tightness and multiple packaging layers to protect the dishes.
For this application stacks of 10 petri dishes are taken standing from the production line and passed to a buffer section. They are then turned through 90 degrees with a handling system and transferred into a finger chain system. A desiccant is also laid onto the stacks to ensure moisture protection. The first flowpack wrap is then added together with an easy tear cut on the seal to aid opening, along with a hanging hole within the transverse seal. Two further flow wrap layers can then be incorporated by separate flowpack X-D machines. A label that changes colour during the sterilisation process is also added, helping users to verify that this process has taken place and ensure that the petri dishes meet the required hygiene standards.
“Air-tightness of the petri dish packaging was an essential requirement for this project,” comments Timo Kollmann, Hugo Beck’s Sales Director. “This, alongside the need to wrap a wide range of different pack sizes and bundles, has meant that our flowpack X-D machines with their unique personalisation set-up and capability to integrate within existing production environments, are delivering perfect results at speeds of up to 200 cycles per minute.”
Other optional features of the Hugo Beck flowpack X-D range for pharmaceutical goods and clean room applications include automatic film changing, packaging under modified atmosphere (MAP), and the facility to automatically cut and apply desiccant or oxygen absorber bags. Optimal cleaning and hygiene is also ensured through the use of stainless steel and protective safety glass guards.
Like all Hugo Beck flowpack machines with continuous motion, the X-D features a servo axis controller MotionControl and the latest generation of Siemens Sinamics to deliver high quality packaging and maximum machine uptime, even in a three-shift operation. Intuitive touch screen operation with data storage ensure ease of use.
“Flowpack machines are ideal for packaging in the medical goods and pharmaceutical sector,” concludes Kollmann. “The ability to provide a true hermetic seal, thereby protecting products and guaranteeing their hygiene, is increasingly required for both manufacturers and users and is a key benefit provided by our flowpack X-D range.”
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