30 000 bottles of medicines are daily filled, packed and exported all over the world as a result of Pfizer’s modernization of their packaging department. FlexLink conveyors were chosen to handle the transport between the stations due to the system’s compatibility with other conveyors, cleanliness and quiet run.

Two fully automatic lines are handling the filling and packaging of the medicine bottles. The medicines are produced in the chemistry part of the Boländerna plant, Sweden and delivered to tanks on the upper floor of the packaging building. The medicines in the form of pills, capsules and dragées are sent down to the filling and packaging department through pipe lines leading to the second stations of the two lines.

Three different bottles
The medicines are filled in three different types of bottles, two square-shaped so called ww bottles for 100 and 300 pills or dragées and one round type bottle for 100. Both lines have the same layout starting with the unscrambling of the bottles followed by filling, then capping, labelling, shrink wrapping and cartoning, and finally automatic end packaging in cartons.

Production line integration
Separate machines are handling the various processes. The ‘local’ conveyors in those machines are of different brands, depending on what trademark the machine builder has preferred. For instance a FlexLink conveyor is working in the capper machine delivered by Flexamatic. The others are all of different brands. 

The conveyor that ties the line together
“Linking the different conveyors, can be a problem”, says Sven-Åke Andrén, Project Manager, Pfizer. “That is why we have chosen the FlexLink conveyor, as it is compatible with most other brands and it is possible to integrate them without difficulties.”

Easy to modify and clean
One of the reasons we decided for FlexLink, says Inger Harrå, Manager of Packaging, Pfizer, was the fact that the conveyors are so easy to modify and adjust when changing from one type of bottle to another.” Yet another reason is the high cleanliness demands within the pharmaceutical industry. “FlexLink is easy to clean, quieter than other conveyors, and has high reliability”, says Sven-Åke Andrén. FlexLink was more expensive than the other brands, but we chose FlexLink as we are satisfied with the earlier FlexLink installations.” “We intend to have FlexLink conveyors installed in more of our machines”, ends Inger Harrå.