Accuracy and speed are crucial in all aspects of printing and labeling and this is especially true in the pharmaceutical field. Pharmaceutical packaging and labeling are required to comply with state and federal regulations as well as meeting specific manufacturer and industry requirements.
Many pharmaceutical carton and case printing needs can be accomplished with automatic off-line feeding/printing systems. These systems save stock of preprinted products and provide only the packs that are needed and when they are needed. These technologies provide flexibility and ease of use on a myriad of package styles.
There are three types of feed systems.
- Shuttle feeders work best when the printing is required on flat cartons such as conventional reverse tuck carton or carton sleeves.
- A friction feeder is better able to handle blister cards, lidding material, seed packets and pouches, thin items such as and Tyvek® lidding material or for those cartons that need to be fed into a printer “flap first.”
- Vacuum feed systems are used for the automatic feeding of polybags, resealable pouches, asymmetric products and also crash-lock cartons.
All of these systems take the product out of a stack, print the required information and return them to a stack.
As to printing systems thermal inkjet printers (TIJ) are the usual printer of choice for pharmaceutical applications because the print is not impacted by differences in the thickness of the material being printed thereby offering greater flexibility. A thermal inkjet printer offers high resolution print, up to 600 dpi, and can also incorporate data matrix or linear barcoding technology.
That being said, the specifications that most in the pharmaceutical industry seek out in a printer are:
- The ability to add lot and expiration information and 2D Data Matrix or linear bar codes
- Inspection of printed information and code
- Automatic removal system of rejected pieces
- Serialization – the current hot topic of the industry.
Whether you’re in the market for a new off-line or in-line printing system to meet your pharmaceutical coding needs, talking with one of our professionals can help assure you get the system designed to meet your particular requirements.
You can contact us by calling 1-800-237-6713 or emailing us at custserv@griffin-rutgers.com. Our team of experts will help you find the right system for your needs and budget.
