Product category:
Pharmaceutical manufacturing: handling and packaging equipment
News Release from: Contax | Subject: 'Slip torque' conveyor
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 22 September 2006
Conveyor avoids packaged product marking
A 'slip torque' conveyor that avoids any marking of pharmeceutical products has enabled an improvement in productivity, while also maintaining the quality of the packaging itself.
Contax, production automation system specialists, have been successful in working with world leading pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca to significantly improve packaging processes on one line in its UK operations Contax proposed the installation of its specialist Shuttleworth conveyor
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 29 Jun 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Paul Corbishley, plant engineer, UK Operations Packaging at AstraZeneca UK, explained, "The pharmaceutical product manufactured on this line is shipped to Japan, where they demand very high quality standards.
The product will not be accepted if there is any marking or damage to the packaging".
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He continued, "In examining all our processes we discovered that our old conveyor was periodically marking the packs.
This gave us a two-fold opportunity - address an immediate challenge and look at making overall improvements in productivity." He added, "We had been using a small manual conveyor that required a full time operator, but by replacing this with a more sophisticated system we could automate the process and free up the operator." The solution supplied by Contax was its Shuttleworth conveyor.
This uses its patented 'slip torque' technology, a patented system designed to reduce product damage.
It is based on polished stainless steel shafts individually powered by flexible belts on a line shaft or by a continuous chain.
These stainless steel shafts are covered with segmented, loose fit rollers, which become the conveyor surface.
It is the weight of the product being conveyed combined with the coefficient of friction between the shafts and the inside diameter of the rollers that provides the driving force.
As the weight of the product increases, there is a corresponding increase in the driving force supplied.
As the products stop, the segmented rollers beneath them also stop, creating very low backpressure accumulation and reducing product damage.
At AstraZeneca, the Shuttleworth conveyor also moves the product down from machine height to operator height, where the line is now split into two, to increase the amount of product available for packing.
The product is removed manually from the conveyor and placed into outer cartons before being taped and weighed.
Continued Corbishley, "This has effectively eliminated a bottleneck in our production, as it enables more product to be transferred off the packing line.
The Shuttleworth conveyor has reduced the quality issues with our product packaging, and the need for a manually operated conveyor.
The result is an increase in productivity and efficiency." He added: "Needless to say, we are very pleased with our decision and the solution recommended by Contax.
They have understood the requirements, and helped us in making the right choice." * About AstraZeneca - AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and the supply of healthcare services.
It is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of US$23.95 billion and leading positions in sales of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology and infection products.
AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Global) as well as the FTSE4Good Index.
* About Contax - Contax is one of the UK and Ireland's most comprehensive suppliers of automation equipment.
Products range from PCB assembly, automatic optical and X-ray inspection, reflow solder, screen printing, precision liquid dispensing, cable preparation, robotic soldering and robotic assembly as well as cleaning systems.
All of this is backed up by Contax's after sales operation and an extensive second user department to fully support their installed base.
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