Company insight
A clever alternative to rigid trays
Dr Jürgen Wirtz, head of development, applications engineering and regulatory affairs at VP Medical Packaging, a division of Vereinigte Papierwarenfabriken (VP Group), explores how vacuum pouches can offer a flexible, sustainable and reliable packaging solution for medical devices.
igid thermoformed trays, combined with product-matched and custom die-cut lids, are a very professional way to provide optimised protection of medical devices during transportation and storage. To achieve optimum results, project engineering resources must be assigned to each job to manage it from design through to implementation. This approach leads to sophisticated packaging solutions that combine engineering and material excellence – but at the cost of high resource consumption and relatively long time-to-market.
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Which other approach might be as reliable as a rigid thermoformed tray, as dedicated as engineered product-matched inserts, but somehow more clever by offering a solution that enables much broader application of advanced medical packaging?
At VP Medical Packaging, the answer is vacuum packaging pouches.
VP Medical Packaging’s technology allows packaging of various devices without the need for new tooling.
accommodate medical devices of different sizes. Product shape does not matter, as the flexible pouch material adapts to any geometry. If sharp edges
“Sterilisation pouches for vacuum packaging offer a truly reliable solution.”
Simple but effective
Such pouches, made of multilayer plastic film with a nylon barrier layer to maintain vacuum and a peelable polyethylene sealing layer, are suitable for sterilisation by irradiation. The vacuum keeps the packaged part in position inside the pouch, preventing movement during transportation and storage.
Unlike rigid thermoformed trays, the shape is not achieved by engineered tooling, but by the flexibility of the material and the use of vacuum during the packaging process. The solution is simple but highly effective. It is possible to provide suitable pouches in a wide range of formats to
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pose a problem, additional protective layers made from flexible plastic can resolve the issue. Crucially, the technology allows packaging of devices of various shapes and sizes without the need for new tooling.
Considering sustainability If vacuum pouches can provide such a strong alternative to engineered rigid trays, why hasn’t the method already become universal? The answer lies in sustainability. At first glance, the concept is appealing – switching from rigid to flexible packaging clearly reduces the volume of plastic consumed. However, the multilayer structure of nylon and
polyethylene poses recycling challenges. That said, the latest technology has shown that thin nylon layers within a polyethylene structure can be suitable for recycling. This development opens the way for recyclable multilayer films to support the vacuum packaging concept.
Towards wider adoption According to experts at VP Medical Packaging, sterilisation pouches for vacuum packaging offer a truly reliable solution for medical device manufacturers. They provide versatile, flexible protection that reduces the risk of unpleasant surprises during transport and shipping tests.
The concept has been refined with sustainability in mind, and many medical device manufacturers are already testing it. A breakthrough in market acceptance is expected – proving that sometimes the cleverest solutions are also the simplest. ●
https://medizinische-verpackungen.
vp-group.de/en
www.medicaldevice-developments.com
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