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I Case History
Thermo is the right medicine for tablet packager
Checkweighers from Thermo Electron Corp. ensure proper fills of tablet tubes at high throughput.
aking sure packages have the right number of tablets is a product-cost and consumer satisfaction issue. Missing tablets are not allowed, and overfilling would impact profitability. That’s why, when it installed new tablet bottling lines, Amerilab Technologies decided to use checkweighers from Thermo Electron. Amerilab, Plymouth, Minn., is a pharmaceutical contract manufacturer specializing in effervescent tablets. Its principal product is Airborne tablets for travelers. “Air sickness” no longer involves paper bags. Instead, it’s come to mean the increased risk of colds, sore throats and other minor ills that travelers incur during flights, when they come into contact with many different germs and spend hours breathing a plane’s recirculated air. Airborne tablets purportedly give a temporary boost to the immune system; they’re meant to be taken before air travel or any other situation where a consumer knows he or she will be exposed to germs. Amerilab had relied on laser or photoelectric level sensors to check the number of tablets in each tube. But that system was not reliable, says Dawn Poellinger, vice president for
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operations: If a tablet landed in the tube on edge instead of flat, it could fool the level sensor. Instead, Amerilab chose checkweighing to insure the fill quality of each product. It turned to Thermo Electron, a supplier who had worked well with the company in the past. Thermo is a global supplier of packaging inspection equipment including checkweighers, metal detectors, XRay systems and bulk material handling equipment. For the new production lines, Amerilab bought five Model AC4000i/8120 checkweighers. A dedicated team worked on the project which resulted in a delivery time of just two weeks for the first units. The AC4000i incorporates the latest technology in microprocessor based electronics and software. Features include memory for 15 different products, three weight zones, and a display that shows weight, zone and status. The 8120 weighframe, which includes the conveyor, weigh table, loadcell, motor and drive,
Checkweighers from Thermo Electron help ensure proper fills for a 10-pill plastic tube inside a carton.
is designed to minimize the effects of vibration and provide the ultimate in checkweighing performance, accuracy and reliability. The Thermo Electron checkweighers accurately check 110 tubes per minute. The tablets weigh four grams apiece, and the checkweighers are accurate enough to kick out not just tubes that are missing a single tablet but also tubes with broken or partial tablets, Poellinger says. F&DP
For more information
Thermo Electron Corp. 800-227-8891; www.thermo.com/food
www.fdp.com
JUNE 2006 / FOOD&DRUG PACKAGING
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