Company insight
MULTIVAC delivered 36 automated lines during the pandemic
Supplying sufficient test swabs quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic: This was the challenge for PURITAN, one of the largest manufacturers of swabs worldwide, which increased its capacity in record time for orders from the US Government – to a peak of 300 million test swabs per month. The US company relied on MULTIVAC and invested in 36 automated lines to hygienically pack the much sought-after medical products.
ovid-19 rapid antigen tests, which are performed with test swabs, have since become part of everyday life for millions of people throughout the world. But this was not a matter of course in the early days of the pandemic. Even the largest manufacturers of these medical products, such as PURITAN, which is based in Guilford in the US state of Maine, only produced a few million test swabs per month before the pandemic – far too few for the demand that arose in such a short period of time.
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The US Government tasked PURITAN in March 2020 with manufacturing very large numbers of corona test swabs, and one of their most critical requirements: speed. The company had to start expanding its capacity within just 12 weeks. And so PURITAN began to convert an old aircraft hangar into a medical production facility with cleanroom classification. At the same time, it looked for state-of-the-art machines and equipment for the production and sterile packaging of the corona test swabs.
High-quality machines and a committed team
“One of the first tasks was to quickly find a manufacturer, who could deliver lines within a few weeks rather than several months,” recalls Timothy Templet, executive vice president for worldwide sales at PURITAN. But in addition to speed of delivery, the issue of automation was also a critical factor in the search, because this was the only way to guarantee the required out-put in
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With Covid-19 being a little-studied health crisis when the pandemic first struck, time was of the essence for government and manufacturers to mass produce test swabs.
the unsafe times of the pandemic with potentially high levels of staff sickness. “Our objective was to ensure, that the machines could operate as completely automated lines, from the loading of the test swabs into the packs right up to the palletising of the shipping boxes,” Templet explains. The choice was made in favour of MULTIVAC, the worldwide packaging specialist. “MULTIVAC not only has high-quality machines, but also a committed and rapid- reaction service team,” Templet says. “This meant that MULTIVAC’s US subsidiary in Kansas City was able to undertake the installation and project management of the lines completely. For this reason, we
decided to enter into a partnership with the company, so that together we could increase the production of Covid-19 rapid antigen tests to 300 million per month.” Since then, there are now 36 new lines operating in PURITAN’s factories. Twelve lines are installed in Maine, and a further 24 in Nashville.
The beating heart of each automated line is a R 535 thermoforming packaging machine, which is designed for operation in cleanrooms. In order to prevent contamination and microorganisms from gaining any foothold on the surfaces of the machine, the MULTIVAC Clean Design ensures that there are no hidden corners or voids and no large clearance gaps. The
Medical Device Developments /
www.nsmedicaldevices.com
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