Reliable packaging of food and pharmaceutical products

22.07.2024

Sustainable pharmaceutical combi-packs

The exhibits include a line that produces pharmaceutical combination packs with syringe, filter and vial from sustainable mono-film. The heart of this line is the RX 4.0 thermoforming packaging machine in GMP design, which is equipped with a glass safety enclosure for optimum production conditions. An integrated SCARA robot is used for the precise and automated loading of the individual products. Before the upper web is sealed to the lower web, it is printed inline with a multi-colour design by a digital printer. Visual inspection of the print image is then performed by means of a visual inspection system.

Heat-sensitive products are protected during the packaging process by a cooled product shield plate: If the machine comes to a stop, the shield plate is automatically positioned between the hot sealing plate and the product. After the packaging process has been completed, a 6-axis robot separates the packs into good and reject packs, and it places them on various transport conveyors for downstream processing.

Thanks to its comprehensive sensor system and continuous process monitoring, the RX 4.0 thermoforming packaging machine offers a high degree of process precision and reproducibility. The RFID-coded dies with permanent status monitoring ensure that format changes are performed reliably, and that the changed dies are positioned correctly on the machine. The whole line can be controlled conveniently and intuitively by the user-friendly HMI on the packaging machine. 

Tray packaging with a variety of materials

The versatile T 305 traysealer from MULTIVAC is ideal for the automated packaging of small to medium-sized batches. It is designed for quick product changes in the food area and is suitable for use in supermarkets, commercial kitchens and industry. The compact traysealer is ideal for a wide range of applications: whether ready meals, snacks or meat, sausage products, cheese, fish or fruit and vegetables.

With a format width of up to 420 x 300 mm, cardboard, plastic and aluminium packaging as well as packaging made of foamed materials with different upper webs can be processed. Sustainable packaging materials, such as mono films or MULTIVAC PaperBoard, can also be used on the traysealer. The T 305 ensures continuous packaging output with consistently high packaging quality. During development, particular attention was paid to energy efficiency and durability. The production of MAP packs for the food sector will be demonstrated at FACHPACK. 

Individual labelling with a maximum degree of automation

MULTIVAC will also be exhibiting the L 310 conveyor belt labeller at the trade fair, which offers maximum versatility when labelling trays, thermoformed packs, cartons and other packs. The conveyor belt labeller offers three functions in one: labels can be printed using the desired printing technology and applied at any point on the packaging and checked directly using camera inspection. The inspection scans all packs and ensures that packs with faulty labels are ejected directly and do not reach the market.

The conveyor belt labeller achieves maximum speeds thanks to servo technology and is available as a zero-downtime version for uninterrupted labelling. In addition, all modules of the L 310 can be conveniently operated via a single control terminal and all parameters are automatically loaded when there is a product change. The conveyor belt labeller offers a wide range of equipment options and can be individually adapted to the task and the respective production process. At FACHPACK, MULTIVAC will be demonstrating labelling on the top and bottom of steak trays.