PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY 29
“We’ve had the Flexicon machine since September 2009 and it has already doubled our throughput to 5000–7000 vials a day,” says a pleased Gould. “It’s eased a genuine bottleneck and I can honestly say we’ve not had a single problem with the machine since it was installed. Additionally, we now only need one operator for the machine, whereas filling and capping was previously a two-man job. To be honest this is a repetitive operation that is much better suited to a machine. Furthermore, machines don’t go off sick, which is an added bonus.”
Improved hygiene Improved hygiene is another benefit that is particularly important in the medical industry. In peristaltic pumping operations, nothing but the hose or tube touches the fluid, eliminating the risk of the pump contaminating the fluid, or the fluid contaminating the pump.
Te Flexicon FF30 is also extremely easy to clean; all format parts are
mounted by finger screws, while all surfaces in contact with the vials are made of stainless steel.
Other Flexicon advantages include filling accuracy of ±0.5per cent, as well as system flexibility, which is vital as many of the blood reagents vary significantly in viscosity.
“Some reagents are like water but others, such as bovine albumin, are sticky and very viscous,” says Gould. “However, the Flexicon machine pumps them all without problem. Changeover is quick too – a complete vial and product changeover can be performed in less than 10 minutes. As a small but growing company, investments such as this are vital to our progression.”
Diagnostic test kits Te acquisition of the FF30 means that Lorne can produce diagnostic test kits and reagents in vials, or in bulk if required, to customers found in transfusion services, hospitals or the armed forces, or to scientists or
clinicians working in laboratories all over the world.
Chuck cappers One of the key products offered by Accutek is its range of chuck cappers. Tese use the latest technology to automatically place and accurately torque most cap types onto most bottle types.
Te chuck cappers can place and torque flat caps, oval caps, flip top caps, pull spouts, safety caps, child proof caps, sport caps, and caps with over-caps or induction seals.
Tey can handle almost any bottle type or shape including PET, PP, PVC, HDPE, LDPE, and glass. Meanwhile KBW’s Ace liquid filling AF 0010 bench-top machine is designed for accurate dispensing, simple operation and fast product change over.
Full pump options are capable of dispensing 1.5–20litres/minute of product.
sector, particularly regarding blood, and as a company we need to be responsive to the everyday challenges faced
by the industry… until recently
we were using manual methods to fill 10ml vials with blood
screwing on caps, at a rate of 2000– 3000 vials a day.”
reagents, ie hand filling and then
“Every day counts in the medical
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