GlaxoSmithKline is a giant within the world’s pharmaceutical industry. At their Evreux site in France, 1 300 people are working with production and sales of medicines. In 1999 the laboratory introduced the first anti-flu treatment. “In today’s competitive situation, we cannot afford to make mistakes, neither when developing products, nor when choosing production methods”, says M. Le Furaut, Plant and Equipment Manager at GlaxoSmithKline.

Extremely small available space
The products mentioned have no equivalents on the market. The 150 meters of transport length dedicated to this product have been divided into three different lines. The main problem when designing these lines is the very small space available. Jacques Giroud, FlexLink’s Sales Area Manager, decided on a very compact system with conveyor bends limited to 150 mm, a plastic chain conveyor adaptable to the customers different types of packages.

Guaranteeing personnel safety 
There are practically no openings between the chain links so that there are no risks of the products transported on the chain being jammed and this also guarantees the security of the people working on the line. “This was another criterion which was crucial when choosing a partner for this installation”, says M. Le Furaut. “Moreover the esthetical look of the FlexLink installation was perfectly integrated into our environment.” 

No need for maintenance
“The FlexLink conveyors handling the new product have been running for more than a year without any maintenance problems, apart from one punctual response which gave us an opportunity to judge the quality of the after sales service”, says M. Le Furant. “We had one problem with jamming of products on the line during transport. M. Giroud suggested that we should incorporate an upper guide which, when placed on the chain solved the problem within 15 hours.” 

“The flexibility of the FlexLink components and the possibilities for integrating the chain with the existing machines has strengthened our choice. It is functioning just as we expected with the new lines, and at the same time we could reuse the modules we already had.”