Tablets & Capsules

TC0519

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I N D U S T R Y 12 May 2019 Tablets & Capsules a p p l i c a t i o n Custom manifold relieves antacid manufacturer's bottling woes British pharmaceutical and con- s u m e r h e a l t h c a r e c o m p a n y GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) manufac- tures the popular Tums line of ant- acid products. The company's pri- mary production and packaging facility for Tums is located in down- town St. Louis, MO, where pharma- cist James Howe invented the Tums b r a n d n e a r l y a c e n t u r y a g o . Recently, the site faced a difficult c h a l l e n g e w h e n t h e c o m p a n y wanted to launch a new bottle size and style on a limited time frame to meet growing demand for its Tums Chewy Bites product. Their unique shape and features makes Tums bottles very recogniz- able on supermarket and pharmacy shelves, but this iconic shape comes with some packaging challenges. The difficulty with bottling Tums prod- ucts has always been accurately fill- ing the large tablets into the narrow bottle opening. Bottling the new Tums Chewy Bites tablets promised to be even more challenging, because the Chewy Bites tablets are thicker than regular Tums tablets, and the bottle opening is narrower. The packaging team in St. Louis needed to quickly demonstrate that they could successfully, accurately, and cost effectively fill the new bot- tles. "We were up against the clock and were told that, if our group On a bottle-filling machine, the manifold collects the counted tablets and distributes them into the empty bottles below. To ensure accurate bottle filling, the openings at the bottom of the manifold channels must align perfectly with the bottle openings. Due to this product's large tablet size and small bottle opening, the supplier needed to design a cus- tom manifold that would also pre- cisely orient the tablets as they entered the bottle, which was easier said than done. "If you looked at these tablets and at the bottles we were trying to get them into, you would say that there's no possible way," said Amelung. couldn't find a solution, the company would have to outsource packaging to a contract packager," said Dave Amelung, a GSK packaging engineer heavily involved with the project. G S K t u r n e d t o T h o m a s Packaging, Rolling Meadows, IL, for a solution. The company sup- plies a wide range of pharmaceuti- cal packaging and inspection equip- ment, including custom-designed bottle-filling slats and manifolds. "We've worked side by side with T h o m a s P a c k a g i n g f o r v a r i o u s change-part needs, and they've made several custom parts for us in the past to solve other complex challenges," Amelung said. The custom manifold's main assembly is constructed of Delrin, a low-friction, wear- resistant plastic, and the unit fully disassembles for cleaning. 316L stainless steel dividers allow the manifold to merge 44 upper channels into 22 lower ch annels for bottle filling.

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