Almac adds high-speed blister equipment at US facility
Strengthens the company’s focus on providing clients with a variety of high quality packaging solutions
Almac has purchased new PharmaWorks TF3 high-speed, large-format blister equip-ment for installation at its North American headquarters in Souderton, PA, to address a growing industry need for outsourced clinical trial services.
Together with the company’s other recent acquisition of a Bosch GKF 702 over-encapsulation machine, the equipment will complement existing equipment currently in Almac’s Craigavon, Northern Ireland global headquarters. The cGMP-compliant equip-ment provides added value in Almac’s clinical manufacturing capabilities, strengthening the company’s focus on providing a variety of high quality packaging solutions.
Features of the TF3 include a 220mm x 290mm form area, colour vision system, automated seal registration, and a program-mable punch station. The machine is equipped with an automated feeder that can accommodate the input of up to four different products (tablets or capsules) simultaneously. Capable of speeds averaging 50 indexes per minute, the machine provides convenient and efficient tool-less changeovers.
Almac evaluated a number of vendors when looking into the purchase of the new blistering equipment. The TF3 was chosen based on its flexible and versatile nature and its ability to most suitably fulfil Almac’s need to expand to meet the growing needs of global clients.
‘The purchase of the PharmaWorks TF3 machine will allow Almac to fulfil our cus-tomer's needs by increasing our blistering capacity,’ said Dan Megill, director of opera-tions at Almac. ‘This machine offers leading functionality and supplies Almac with a highly flexible format to support our various clients and their packaging needs.
‘We are pleased with this acquisition and expect it to contribute greatly to Almac’s overall productivity while enhancing our core services.’
‘We have included features and technol-ogy [on the TF3] to solve many of the phar-maceutical industry’s blister production chal-lenges. From our user friendly interface to our laser seal and punch registration features we feel the machine is state-of-the-art,’ Ben Brower, PharmaWorks vp, also commented ‘We are proud to count Almac as a continued customer and partner in providing the highest quality in pharmaceutical blister produc-tion.’
