Many pharmaceutical companies use small blister packaging machines for research and development (R&D) and small-scale contract packaging. If you run a small-scale operation, small-scale packaging equipment is the perfect solution to create blister packs on an as-needed basis.
Why You Should Choose a Small Blister Packaging Machine
Small blister packaging machines are specifically designed to create small quantities of blister packs for tablets, capsules, and medical devices. Ascend Packaging Systems offers several models that are highly flexible and economical, allowing you to create high-quality, low-volume blister packs for your pharmaceutical products.
Small-Scale Packaging Equipment: Low-Volume, High-Quality, Limited Space
When small batches of blister packs are required for clinical trials or stability studies, it’s difficult for small runs to fit into a large, busy production schedule. Investing in small-scale packaging equipment means you can create a low volume of high-quality blister packs without interrupting your large-scale production line, saving you time and money and enabling your department to create blister packs when required.
Small blister packaging machines also fit into facilities and laboratories with limited space easily. They offer superior flexibility for producing blister packs from a large variety of packaging materials by using thermoforming and coldforming processes. Equipped with a quick, easy, and tool-less changeover function, small blister packaging machines also enable an easy switch between different applications, decreasing production downtime.
The Blister Packaging Process
Whether you run a small- or large-scale facility, the blister packaging process is crucial to protect your product from moisture, heat, contamination, and UV light. A quality blister pack is created by forming a cavity-equipped material made from aluminum foil or plastic. Once the product is placed inside the cavity, a second layer made from aluminum foil, plastic, or cardboard is added to the seal pack to protect the product.
Small blister packaging machines typically use a three-step process to create blister cards for low-volume blister packs:
- Forming
A forming mold is used in either the thermoforming or coldforming process to create a tray with cavities or pockets that match your exact product requirements. - Sealing
Your product is placed inside the cavities. The trays are sealed with pre-cut pieces of your choice of lidding material using knurled or flat heat-sealing plates. - Perforating and Cutting
The sealed trays are cut and perforated using a precision die cutter. Consider adding perforated brake lines between your blister packs’ pockets before the final perimeter cut.
Selecting Your Small Blister Packaging Machine Materials
Small blister packaging machines can work with a wide range of forming and lidding materials like PVC, PP, PVDC, COC, aclar, and aluminum foil.
Forming Materials
Each forming material has a different resistance that affects the shelf life and storage condition of your product. Your product’s sensitivity determines how high-grade your packaging material should be. Forming materials like aluminium or aclar are required for highly sensitive products that need ultimate protection. Forming film is usually colorless and transparent, but forming films can be opaque if the drug needs light protection.
Lidding Materials
Mostly made from aluminum, lidding materials have printed primer on one side and coating material made for heat sealing on the other. Heat-sealing lacquer must comply with FDA standards and match the respective forming films precisely, meaning that the predetermined sealing parameter must be guaranteed under any climatic conditions.
Different lidding materials are available to meet your product needs, such as hard aluminum for push-through applications, soft aluminum for child-resistant needs, paper-aluminum for peel-off applications, and paper-PET-aluminum for peel-off/child-resistant use.
Small-Scale Packaging Equipment Options
At Ascend, we provide a variety of small-scale packaging equipment solutions:
Table Top Blister Packaging Machines
Ascend’s table top blister packaging machines are ideal for a variety of products like tablets, capsules, sachets, pouches, and medical devices. Table top packaging machines are the perfect solution for short-run clinical trials and lab-scale packaging. We also have semi-automatic table top blister packaging machines available specifically for small-scale facility production. Table top blister packaging machines don’t require tool-up or set up. By using Ascend Packaging’s machine for small-scale operations, you don’t have to sacrifice your large-scale blister packaging equipment for the needs of smaller batches.
Semi-Automatic Blister Packing Machines
Semi-automatic blister packaging machines are also a small-scale packaging equipment option at Ascend. Equipped to handle most medical device packaging and lidding materials such as PETG, aluminum, and PVC, semi-automatic blister packaging equipment is a crucial part of improving your small-scale production line.
Sepha EZ Blister Packaging Machine
Available with an optional EZ Blister auto-feed, the Sepha EZ Blister packaging machine incorporates an auto-feed with reel holder and a roller-based reel tension system to hold material in place and feed predetermined amounts through the machine for forming or sealing. This option increases the rate of production to 300 to 500 cycles per hour.
Sepha EZ MedPak Blister Machine
Created with a design for deep-draw products like large tablets and medical devices, the Sepha EZ MedPak Blister machine works on a three-stage operation that handles forming, sealing, perforating, and cutting. The EZ MedPak Blister machine can handle forming materials including, PVC, PCTFE laminates, and PETG. Lidding options for the EZ MedPak include aluminum and peelable or paper-backed foils and Tyvek.
Improving Your Small-Scale Operations With High-Quality, Small Scale Packaging Equipment
Ascend’s small-scale packaging equipment helps improve the production of your small-scale operation. Whether you produce tablets, capsules, or medical devices, we have a variety of semi-automatic, small-scale machines perfect for your facility’s packaging needs. Rely on our expertise and years of experience to recommend the equipment you need and build the custom, industry-compliant solutions you won’t find anywhere else. To learn more about our semi-automatic packaging machines, contact Ascend Packaging today.
