High-assurance capping, sealing & bottle counting

The hopper-fed Euro-Cap rotary capper, from Kalish, provides real-time torque inspection. A strain-gauge cell built into the capper measures the torque of each cap; if it's outside preset limits, the bottle is rejected. Previously, torque inspection was limited to manual tests of randomly sampled containers. Following cap inspection is an Enercon (Menomonee Falls, WI) induction sealer. It has a unique speed control from Kalish that enables Glaxo Wellcome to validate that every bottle has passed through the sealer at the proper conveyor speed and hence, is properly sealed. The control consists of a PLC tied to an encoder on the conveyor. If the conveyor is running too slowly for a proper seal, the PLC delivers more current to the conveyor to speed it up. If the conveyor is moving too quickly, the speed control slows it down. If for whatever reason the conveyor is physically unable to run at the speed that's specificed by the PLC, an alarm sounds. After bottles pass through a retorquer, they proceed into a unique custom built machine from AGR that counts bottles and drops them loose into polyethylene-lined cases. It's not so much a case packer as it is a highly accurate bottle counter that uses multiple light curtains to register and confirm the passage of each bottle. Air bursts are used to blow bottles off the conveyor and into the waiting box. The counter was necessary since Glaxo Wellcome needed a way to count out the exact number of bottles dictated by a given trial. "It's been a lifesaver," says Dean Kazan, supervisor, clinical supplies primary packaging. "We used to have a collection table at the end where we'd offload these by hand."