UK-based glass manufacturer Beatson Clark can now supply pharmaceutical bottles pre-capped after investing £80,000 in a new capping machine.
A Groninger six-head capping machine, which applies a 28mm Mediloc cap to glass bottles at speeds of 180 bottles a minute, is now in operation at the company’s Rotherham site.
The equipment will allow Beatson Clark to fulfil a contract with a major high street chemist to supply pre-capped alpha sirops, continental winchesters and bespoke round bottles.
'Safety is a paramount concern for pharmacists and it’s essential that the correct cap is applied to the bottle,' said Lynn Sidebottom, Marketing Director at Beatson Clark.
'Certain pharmaceutical products need to be child-safe and ensuring the correct cap is used also reduces the risk of contamination during storage.'
The Groninger machine has an associated UV ink jet coding system which applies a date/time stamp code on both the cap and the container for traceability.
Beatson Clark was founded as a supplier of glass containers for druggists and chemists in Rotherham in 1751 and is now the UK’s only manufacturer of pharmaceutical glass bottles.
The company's turnover is £44m and its production capacity is approximately 496 million units or 88,000 tonnes.