Automated picking and packaging for highest demands
Packaging medical products is vital to protect them from environmental influences during transport and storage. The Medical Packaging Solution helps you to keep your products safe and intact until the moment they come into action.
The packaging of medical devices and other products that require special protection for transport and storage is one of the final steps in the manufacturing process. It implies bringing together different products with different kinds of packaging – and here lies the challenge of this step.
Manufacturers need to be extremely flexible: Both the medical product and the type of secondary packaging change regularly.
Our Medical Packaging Solution helps you to automate medical product packaging, despite the great variability of this process.
Nevertheless, flexibility is one of the platform’s major strengths, being easily adaptable to changes in secondary packaging or the products to be covered.
Clients
At Roche, we were looking for a modular, flexible solution for assembling different devices and found this solution in ESSERT´s automation platform. The collaboration with ESSERT was characterized by a high level of innovation and the willingness to adapt to the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry.
The robot workstation impresses with its flexibility, scalability and integration of state-of-the-art camera technologies.
Automated packaging solutions demonstrate their powers in the packaging of a wide array of medical products used in various healthcare applications.
In High Mix / Low Volume (HMLV) manufacturing, these systems are instrumental in efficiently packaging products like personalized therapies, specialized pharmaceuticals, intricate medical instruments, diagnostic kits, and sterile surgical supplies.
These diverse medical items demand versatile packaging solutions that can adapt to their unique requirements while maintaining the utmost precision and quality, making automation an invaluable asset in the healthcare industry.
Medical product packaging plays a pivotal role in the life cycle of healthcare items, evolving from a protective shell to a life-saving necessity. Meeting the packaging needs of medical products is crucial to ensure their integrity and effectiveness.
Whether it is sterile barriers for surgical equipment or protective packaging for pharmaceuticals, these solutions contribute to product safety, shelf life extension, and most importantly, the well-being of patients.
In pharmaceutical packaging, the decision regarding sterile or non-sterile packaging depends on the specific product and its unique requirements.
Products such as surgical instruments, injectable medications, and IV solutions necessitate sterile packaging to prevent contamination by microorganisms. These items require an extended shelf life and must meet stringent safety standards.
Conversely, non-sterile packaging is suitable for pharmaceuticals like various over-the-counter drugs. Products like bandages or different diagnostic kits have less stringent shelf life requirements and are less sensitive to potential contamination.
Various packaging types and materials are selected based on the specific needs of each product. Materials range from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for durability to glass for sterility, and aluminum foil for moisture and light protection.
These choices are pivotal for ensuring product stability, safety, compliance with regulatory requirements. Types of packaging that are frequently used for medical devices and products include:
Validation testing and adherence to stringent regulatory standards are imperative in medical product packaging. This involves rigorous test methods to ensure the integrity and sterility of the packaging.
For instance, sterilization processes are validated to confirm the elimination of microorganisms, a critical aspect in pharmaceutical and medical device packaging. Compliance with regulatory standards is vital to guarantee patient safety and product efficacy. For this purpose, several guidelines have been put into place, for instance
Automated medical product packaging finds versatile applications in High Mix / Low Volume (HMLV) manufacturing settings. It efficiently handles the packaging needs of diverse and changing product lines, ensuring precision and quality in the production of personalized therapies, pharmaceuticals, medical instruments, and diagnostic kits.
Personalized therapies are tailored to individual patient needs, resulting in diverse product variations. Automated packaging systems are essential in this context, efficiently accommodating the specific packaging requirements of each patient's treatment. They ensure precision, consistency, and a rapid response to evolving therapy configurations.
As the trend toward personalized therapies continues to grow, automation in pharma becomes indispensable for meeting the high demands while maintaining high-quality standards and reducing the risk of errors in packaging.
In late stage customization for medical products, the need for automated packaging arises from the demands of adapting to frequently changing product configurations in High Mix / Low Volume (HMLV) manufacturing.
Automated packaging systems offer a precise and flexible solution to efficiently handle this dynamic environment. They enable rapid adjustments, reduce the risk of errors, and maintain stringent quality control when customizing healthcare products.
Medical product packaging is especially demanding in High Mix / Low Volume environments, where production princesses are characterized by regular and profound alterations. While mass production has already adopted automated packaging systems, HMLV manufacturing still involves a great deal of manual labor – also in the packaging of medical products – due to a lack of versatile automated solutions.
ESSERT Robotics has taken on the challenge to create an automated packaging machine that is up to the multiple challenges in HMLV manufacturing, and has developed the Medical Packaging Solution as a specialized configuration of the ADVANCED Robotic Workstation. It automates the process of packaging medical devices and other products with a high level of flexibility and customizability, allowing you to quickly adapt cleanroom- and GMP-compliant packaging processes with no programming skills necessary.
This is possible thanks to ESSERT OS – an intuitive operating system that also brings transparency and control to your manufacturing processes. With a tablet as the interface between human and robot, you can easily monitor ongoing processes and access your data history – for maximum process safety and traceability.
Contact
We would be happy to discuss with you how our robotic platform can help to achieve your goals.
