Newman Labelling Systems, a UK manufacturer of pharmaceutical labelling systems, has supplied a 6VAL labelling system to healthcare company Fresenius Kabi for use at its Port Elizabeth facility in South Africa.
The 6VAL applies clear and paper self-adhesive labels to a range of rigid cylindrical containers. Fresenius Kabi is using the machine to label 2ml vials of Petogen 150mg/mL injection.
The 6VAL has been designed specifically for handling unstable containers including vials, ampoules, syringes and cartridges, at speeds of up to 275 containers/min.
Fresenius Kabi also specified a PCE Pilot Optical Character Vision and Optical Character Recognition system and a Videojet Dataflex Thermal Transfer Coder with colour screen for printing batch and expiry dates for use with the 6VAL.
The decision to purchase the 6VAL was based on a combination of machine quality and capability, plus the reputation of Newman Labelling Systems, the company says.
'We were impressed by the output capacity of the machine, the presence of a unit rejection station, 2D barcode scanning option and the fact that it is cGMP compliant,' said Jeremiah Thorne, Project Engineer at Fresenius Kabi. 'We also liked Newman’s ability to supply the machine with OCV and OCR options.'
Thorne added: 'The other consideration in our decision was the brand name and the manufacturer’s expertise when it comes to developing and manufacturing labelling equipment for vials and ampoules. Newman’s machines have proved to be reliable and the company has always provided a professional, efficient and helpful service, which has led us to standardise on them in our factory.'