PACKAGING MACHINERY
Automation in action on a liquids line
Bavarian pharma manufacturer, Bionorica trusts in solutions from Romaco, a leading global supplier of processing and packaging equipment. With the help of Romaco, Bionorica recently automated various steps in its liquids production plant. By Marco Mandrioli, Romaco’s area sales manager
F
or over 85 years, Bionorica has been unlocking the healing power of nature to produce effective and well tolerated herbal medicines. The company has grown from a one-man business to a global player, employing
about 1 700 people and operating in more than 40 countries worldwide. The business is still owner run and has its headquarters in Neumarkt, Bavaria. At the Neumarkt site, non-sterile liquids are filled and packed in glass bottles on two liquid lines for therapeutic nose, throat and lung applications. To improve the overall equipment effectiveness of its liquids production, Bionorica decided to automate
DID YOU KNOW?
Bionorica is mainly known for Sinupret – Germany’s number one cold remedy in terms of sales. The product is also available internationally, including South Africa.
various steps that were previously manual. In addition to depalletising and the unpacking of foil-sealed ‘safe packs’ – the feeding and inspection of bottles are now fully automated. The idea is that, in future, all modules on the line will deliver the same high level of performance. Although the filling machine theoretically has a maximum output in the region of 200 bottles per minute, this figure has never actually been reached in practice because the machine’s capacity has so far been unmatched by the performance of the other modules, notably the cartoner. This is why Bionorica opted to replace every module on the line apart from the filling machine.
The internationally successful remedy, Sinupret, on the automated liquids line at Bionorica
cartoner subsequently packs the bottles into cartons together with a leaflet. Finally, they are serialised with a 2D code and packed into cases, sealed and serialised again by a case packerpalletiser, before being automatically loaded onto pallets at the end of the line.
Four of the modules on the new packaging line are from the Karlsruhe-based Romaco Group, which develops, manufactures and distributes GMP compliant, high-tech system solutions for the pharma industry. ‘Romaco has a broad, premium quality product portfolio – which is a great advantage when implementing complex plants like ours. It means we can source several machines from just one supplier,’ explains Howard Fick of Bionorica’s engineering department. ‘The supplier also convinced us with the offering of good value for money solutions, individually tailored to our needs and its prompt and efficient support.’
A LOOK AT THE PROCESS In the first section of the fully automatic liquids line, the glass bottles delivered in safe packs are automatically depalletised and unpacked with the help of a Romaco Macofar MED 003 depacking system. They are then passed to an inspection unit, featuring a new technology jointly developed by Romaco and Bionorica, for detecting and removing faulty bottles. In the next step, the bottles are fed via a rotary table to the filling machine, where they are filled, fitted with a screw cap and labelled. A Romaco Promatic PC 4250 continuous motion
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| QUARTER 3 2019 | P C Africa
The Romaco Promatic PC 4250 continuous motion cartoner packs bottles into cartons
