High versatility in small space

When the international pharmaceutical group’s Italian plant in was chosen as the main platform for the production of powdered antibiotics for children, they had to re-configure three bottle lines.

Challenge
To re-configure, in a very limited floor space, three existing production lines. Parts of the lines were in clean room environment.

Solution
Wedge elevators to elevate the products, creating free passages and accumulators for line balancing.

Benefits
A space saving solution with line balancing features, reducing bottles necks and increasing line efficiency.

From filling to packaging

In the first section, the bottles are positioned and cleaned, they are then transported into sterile rooms to be filled and sealed. After the clean room the bottles pass through a shaking machine, wrappers and case packers and then finally to the palletizing area.

Bottle elevation in sterile environments

To elevate the bottles inside the sterile room and to create a series of passages for the operators FlexLink installed a wedge elevator, with flexible rubber cleats for efficient and gentle handling.

Part of the supply was also to balance the line so that the shaking machine had a leveraged in-feed. FlexLink had to use an existing system coming from a plant in Puerto Rico but customized it to the existing lines. Two additional alpine buffers were also delivered from FlexLink.

Delicate handling of shrink-wrapped packages

In one of the lines, the bottles are not packaged in boxes but shrink wrapped. “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”, continues.

New versatility requirements

With the use of the Puerto Rico lines we appreciate more and more the flexibility of FlexLink", says the customer’s Maintenance Manager. "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 the Maintenance Manager