Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical Company

Replace the existing filling line with an integrated system to permit net weighing of all containers and the gathering and storage of data on all filling activity for the review of the client’s Quality Control Department.

The system in place used four lanes, each with a clutch/brake filler. Offline sample check weighing was conducted on a periodic basis. If an incorrect weight was found, the entire lot had to be rejected, resulting in excessive and costly product giveaway. Total system output of all four lanes was 240 vials/minute.

Spee-Dee® installed a two lane system where vials were driven through a three stage process using a servo driven timing screw. First, the containers stopped on a load cell, used to tare the vial. Then they were filled by the auger and placed on a second load cell to be weighed. The tare weight was deducted from the gross weight, yielding a true net weight for each vial. The net weight was electronically transmitted to the auger for adjustment. This information was also fed over DH+ to the client’s centralized data collection system. Line speeds for each lane were 120/minute for a total of 240/minute for the entire system.

The same output speed was reached using two augers instead of four, however the real savings was realized from the reduction in bad weights and the ability to accept or reject each individual vial. This reduced profit eroding rejected product levels by more than 10%.