The international group Eli Lilly & Co is a producer of pharmaceuticals. From 1999, the worldwide production of powdered antibiotics of the cephalosporin family is concentrated to the plant in Sesto Fiorentino, Italy. FlexLink has co-operated with Eli Lilly Italia tailoring three production lines to the Italian plant structure, as well as finding solution for handling problems, generated by the limited availability of space.

“The Italian plant has been chosen by our Group as the main platform for the production of powdered antibiotics for children”, says Diana Varela, consultant Eli Lilly, Puerto Rico. In Italy we installed three complete lines the filling and packaging of antibiotics bottles. After having been positioned and cleaned in the first section of the lines, the bottles are transported into sterile rooms to be filled and sealed. The bottles pass through a shaking machine after their way out of the sterile room, and are then transferred to the shrink/stretch wrapper and further to the palletiser.”

Bottle elevation in sterile environments 
“In the two first production lines, the passage for the operators has been achieved elevating bottles after the filling section”, explains Paolo Giani, FlexLink. “To elevate the bottles inside the sterile room, we installed a wedge elevator. The FlexLink alpine systems coming from Puerto Rico have been used and tailored to the existing lines.” “The third line did not have the same problem of operator passages, but like the others, had to be supplied with a feeding buffer before the shaking machine”, adds Mrs. Varela.

Delicate handling of shrink-wrapped packages
“During the transfer from the shrink-wrapping machine to the palletizer, the risk that the wrapping film is pinched off by the chain links must be absolutely avoided”, says Cristina Garzelli. “We therefore recommended our XB conveyor with 175 mm wide chain, which features overlapping links that stay closed even in bends. This design minimizes the risk of jamming or tearing the shrink-wrapping film.

New versatility requirements
“With the use of the new Puerto Rico lines we appreciate more and more the flexibility of FlexLink”, says Mr. Nucciotti, Maintenance Manager, Eli Lilly, Sesto Fiorentino. “We had to reconfigure the lines with the integration of components coming from Puerto Rico. The versatility of FlexLink allowed us to redesign the conveyor layouts without big problems and in the same time to solve new problems.” 

Easy assembly
“Thanks to the easy assembling procedures, we always mount FlexLink components ourselves. FlexLink offers us all the technical support needed. We often ask for very short delivery terms, and they always meet our requirements”, ends Mr. Nucciot.