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Aventis reinvents vial packaging

It starts with a labeler handling 900 vials/min and finishes with robotic cartoning and palletizing. In between is a pioneering use of 2D datamatrix coding symbology.

Above photo shows one of two infeed stations, including the feed screw, used to feed vials into the labeler.
Above photo shows one of two infeed stations, including the feed screw, used to feed vials into the labeler.

Secondary packaging of 1.7- or 3.0-mL glass vials reaches a remarkable level of sophisticated speed and automation at a new line installed this fall at Aventis Pharma in Frankfurt, Germany.

Pressure-sensitive labeling is at the lead, and it’s done at speeds to 900 vials/min on a Krones twin-head system custom-built for Aventis. Robotic traypacking and cartoning are next, compliments of a system supplied by Dividella. And finally, bundling and robotic case packing on an integrated system from Pester brings the impressive assembly to an end.

To appreciate what Aventis has accomplished with this new line, it helps to look at how packaging was done in the past. Then, vials came with variable information preprinted on the side of the vial. “This required ordering and inventorying of vials well in advance of when they’d be filled,” says Stephan Koll, electrical and process controls engineer at Aventis. “That made inventory difficult to manage.”

The other drawback to the old way of doing things is that it relied too heavily on manual operations. After glass vials were automatically packaged in thermoformed blisters and a foil lidstock was heat-sealed to the thermoform, the 10-count blister packs were cartoned by hand and manually case-packed. Palletizing of cases was also done manually. Koll doesn’t say how many operators were required, but throughput was 700 vials/min.

Simplified inventory

That was then. Now, the Krones labeler greatly simplifies empty-vial inventory because variable data like expiration date and lot number is no longer pre-printed. It’s hot-stamped on the labels on-line by an Allen Thermo system that’s integrated into the Krones dual-infeed/dual labeling head/dual outfeed p-s labeler. At the center of the Krones labeler is a 60-station wheel. It receives vials from two different infeed stations and takes vials past two labeling heads as it rotates. A discharge starwheel sends labeled vials to a reject conveyor if sensors detect a flaw in content or legibility. Acceptable vials are discharged into two separate conveyors leading into the Dividella robotic cartoner.

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