A changeover from desiccant canisters to packets for twelve of its product lines, . Teva Pharmaceuticals has resulted in considerable lowering of operating costs and greater supply reliability, a company release said Teva, the world's largest generics pharmaceutical manufacturer, recently implemented a mobile high-speed automated desiccant packet system from Multisorb Technologies, Inc. and Active-Pak Automation at the Sellersville, PA, facility, which manufactures approximately 20 million packaged units per year,. As a result of the switch, Teva has seen significant improvements in line speed and anticipates an annual savings of $150,000 in material costs alone.

Teva had been using three sizes of desiccant canister, ¾-gram, one-gram, and two-gram. Reliability and speed of insertion were priorities for Teva, and the company was experiencing some challenges with its automated canister insertion into bottles. Hopper jams, foul-ups, and line downtime prevented Teva from running its lines at top speeds. The canisters were molded with a small lip on them, and this sometimes caused them to jam up in the equipment, and this led to line shut-downs. Shortages with the desiccant canisters were also a challenge for Teva.

Multisorb's StripPax desiccant packets are FDA recognized as an equivalent desiccant to canisters. While the lower per-unit cost of packets was attractive to Teva, the company realized additional benefits of increased line speed and packet size flexibility. Having a single-source supplier for all of its desiccant needs was another advantage, and by switching to StripPax packets, Teva eliminated the manual insertion of pre-cut packets that was sometimes necessary during strains in canister supply. Desiccant insertion is now fully automated at the Sellersville facility.

The desiccant packet insertion equipment supplied by Active-Pak Automation (APA), a division of Multisorb, offered Teva a critical solution to its equipment reliability issues. APA's high-speed equipment is engineered for continuous StripPax desiccant insertion at line speeds of up to 300 bottles per minute. Able to handle various packet sizes from widths of 15 to 50 mm and lengths of 30 to 100 mm, APA equipment allows Teva to custom size their desiccant packets for easy insertion into bottlenecks and avoids the need to double drop.

With automated canister insertion Teva ran lines at 25 to 75 bottles per minute depending on bottle size. These speeds often suffered due to double-drop scenarios of one-gram desiccant canisters.

The APA equipment enables faster line runs, and its technology has also raised the bar on insertion reliability for continuous StripPax desiccants. Numerous sensors in the APA equipment eliminate packet mis-cuts and ensure insertion reliability, and lines are capable of running at optimal speeds with any packet size. APA equipment also has the ability to place uncut strips of multiple packets into bottles at high speeds, providing additional levels of flexibility with only one cut per drop.