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Send to KindleGlaxoSmithKline increases production efficiency with custom filling system
To further advance this technology, Bosch incorporated its PreVAS concept (PreValidated, PreAssembled, PreSterilized). Designed to enable all product-contact parts—including hoses, product bags, and filling needles—to be delivered both preassembled and sterilized, the system eliminates risk of cross-contamination and speeds production start-up.
In addition, at the end of a production cycle, these parts are simply disposed of without requiring the time-consuming and costly cleaning then revalidation process. This improves efficiency while ensuring safety. The Bosch-PreVAS system also uses stainless-steel filling needles with a plastic coating. Normally, single-use dosing systems use molded plastic needles, which allow significantly higher reproducibility of filling volumes.
The peristaltic pumps are an integral part of the PreVAS system. When integrated with a disposable filling system, peristaltic pumps offer simple operation and safety for filling of sensitive drugs and biotech products. The peristaltic pump design also enables GSK’s products to be filled with higher precision and accuracy while lengthening production cycles. Also, an offset arrangement of rollers is used where one tube is always less compressed. Stress on the tubing is decreased, reducing flow pulsations and ensuring continuous liquid flow.
“The level of dosing accuracy of the peristaltic pumps is quite impressive and we were able to prove this over various production batches,” adds Wilson.
The peristaltic pump offers quick tubing changes with only one hand. The system features a pivoting pump head cover that allows the pump to be opened without tools and without removing the cover parts. The operator can easily open the pump to change the tubing then simply close the pump again, decreasing the set-up time. The pump also features stainless-steel housing, rotor, and rollers for ease of cleaning.
Flexibility and speed-to-market
A differentiating feature is the mobility of the dosing system, which offers GSK the flexibility to use it whenever and wherever required. Mounted on a movable trolley, the peristaltic pump acts as an autonomous filling station with a built-in control system and servo drives. This enables the pump to be positioned next to any filling line whenever required, thereby allowing GSK to extend the performance and flexibility of its filling machine.
By choosing between its current dosing system and the movable peristaltic pumps, GSK can prepare new products for production more quickly, releasing them into the market more swiftly, and with less effort. And GSK can meet its rigorous production demands without the need for an additional filling line, bringing more production capacity to the Barnard Castle site.
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