Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1233462
30 April 2020 Tablets & Capsules I N D U S T R Y a p p l i c a t i o n Surepharm invests in on-dose printer for sugar-coated tablet Because the product is sugar coated, however, the coating thickness tends to vary, which would have affected the machine's performance. T h e t h i r d c o m p a n y , A c k l e y Machine, based in Moorestown, NJ, provided a quote that was both affordable and that would meet the needs of the application. The sup- plier offers a range of lab- and pro- duction-scale printing, laser-marking, laser-drilling, and vision-inspection equipment for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and confectionery industries. Ackley's Cantilever Ramp printer prints up to 200,000 units per hour on products of all shapes, sizes, and material compositions, including film-, sugar-, and gel-coated tablets, longitudinally compressed tablets, transparent and opaque softgels, and hard-shell capsules. "We went with the Cantilever Ramp printer because it could achieve the production speeds we needed," said Lawson. "Our target production time if we made all the batches in one go was about three months for this volume of tablets. With their smaller printer, it would have taken seven months to print them, which is a lot of capacity gone." Customized for the product The Cantilever Ramp printer is portable, has a small footprint, and is designed to meet both FDA cGMP and European CE regulations. The printer's carrier-bar feeding system includes an adjustable-ramp feed angle, which allows the operator to optimize the feed rate based on prod- uct flow characteristics. This results Surepharm is a contract manufac- turing organization (CMO) located near Burton on Trent in the UK. The company has been in business for more than 25 years and specializes in solid dosage generic medicines, vitamins, food supplements, and vet- erinary products. Recently, Surepharm received an inquiry about manufacturing a prod- uct for the European market. The product was a sugar-coated tablet with a volume of about 23 million tablets per year. The project required on-dose printing of a logo, which the CMO hadn't done previously, but the volume was large enough that the company decided it was worth investing in a printer. Selecting a tablet printer Darren Lawson, Surepharm's packaging and operations manager, was tasked with sourcing a tablet printer for the project. " B e c a u s e w e h a d n o p r e v i - ous knowledge of tablet printing," said Lawson, "we had to do a lot of research to understand the process and how to apply ink to tablets. Then we literally searched on Goo- gle and found three companies." Surepharm provided the three suppliers with the project's produc- tion volume and printing require- ments through a detailed user requirements specification (URS) and received initial quotes. Accord- ing to Lawson, one company's quote was "ridiculously high" and the sec- ond company's printer required that the tablet thickness be very precise for the machine to work properly. Photo 1: The printer's continuous-motion, multiple-lane conveyor feed system features carrier bars with pockets that precisely position the tablets and expose their top surfaces for printing.