In the large area reserved for sterile and injectable drugs, at Interpack 2023, Marchesini Group, which designs and produces a wide range of packaging machines and lines for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry, will unveil for the first time NSY – a no-contact monobloc machine for the high-speed automatic inspection of syringes, with integral denesting and renesting unit – and a syringe filling machine Extrafill-10.
NSY: a no-contact monobloc machine for high-speed automatic inspection of syringes
NSY is the outcome of close cooperation between two of the Marchesini Group’s divisions: Corima, a Siena-based company specialized in technologies to guarantee the sterility of the injectables production process, and CMP Phar.ma from Vicenza, which produces pharmaceutical inspection machines.
The monobloc consists of a unit that performs robotized picking of the syringes from tubs/nests and feeds them into the inspection phase in a single row with no contact between syringes or with metal parts. The heart of this solution is inspection itself, which can achieve speeds of up to 36,000 syringes/hour.
This part of the machine is able to contain up to 10 inspection stations to inspect every zone of the syringe: flange, stopper, particle detection, filling level, needle shield, defects in the glass walls and integrity inspection using HVLD (high-voltage leak detection) technology.
The monobloc features five reject lanes that can be customized to differentiate the rejected syringes and is designed to deliver approved syringes in a single row, without any contact between them or with metal parts.
Last but not least, the machine, which has a robotized unit for renesting the syringes in tubs/nests from the denesting station, can be equipped with a variety of optional accessories, including a camera to inspect for nest completeness and the relative syringe count, or coding of the nest or tub by labeling or inkjet or laser printing.
Extrafill-10: a perfect combination of high speed and flexibility
The syringe filling Extrafill-10 – so called because it is equipped with 10 dosing heads – has been conceived to fulfill the highest quality requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. It can process RTU (ready-to-use) vials arranged into nest and tubs having the same sizes of the syringe’s nest or into single-piece nested-tray.
Extrafill-10 is capable of running small-size syringes up to 600/min (36.000/h). The high speed is necessary for high production volumes, typical of vaccine-filling campaigns, but it is important even in case of preservative-free products which must be filled in a short time.
Its design allows an easy integration on the pharma wall with a balcony-style philosophy, which makes perfect the airflow laminarity over the containers. The wall integration makes also possible to perform regular maintenance tasks through the backside with no contamination of the filling room, exactly as required on the cGMP Annex 1. However, the Extrafill-10 can be installed even in the middle of the filling room with no back-side integration on the pharma wall.
Another main feature of the Extrafill-10 is the 100% in-process weight control, maintaining the production speed at more than 300/min.
The rubber stopper feeding unit is another important innovation. The vibratory bowl works as a pre-feeder while sorting and buffering is performed by the vibratory linear tracks. Such a system offers two important advantages. The first is surely related to the easy format changeover. The second is the feature of automatic rejection of sticky stoppers; twin-stoppers can be rejected without causing any jam on the feeding tracks; they are recirculated into the pre-feeder.
A high level of robotization is installed on the Extrafill 10 filling line: a robot is used for high-speed syringe or vial denesting and loading on the linear transport system; a second robot is installed on the unloading area, to avoid glass-to-glass contact.
At the level of containment strategy, the machine can be supplied with open RABS, closed RABS or under its isolator of the series ISOL-AIR.
Digital transformation and artificial intelligence solutions
Marchesini Group will also exhibit the latest technologies developed to constantly raise the bar in the performance and innovation of the machines and services supplied to customers. An area on the large stand of over 1500 square meters (Hall 15 – Stand A42 1-6) will be dedicated to the latest innovations evolved by the Group in the field of digital transformation and artificial intelligence.
Together with its partner Eyecan – a startup born from a Bologna University spin-off – the Marchesini Group team will provide a demonstration of how AI is involved in robot-picking applications. What’s more, artificial intelligence will also be the basis for “Morpheus”, the predictive maintenance solution available to customers to aid them in increasing productivity and gaining full familiarity with and benefits from the machines purchased. Thanks to sensors installed on the machine (IoT network) that provide precise monitoring, and data collection and analysis tools using AI algorithms, customers can monitor their machines’ “health” round the clock and plan maintenance in advance, forestalling possible failures.
The Düsseldorf show will also be a unique opportunity for introducing customers to the customer portal, with a set of services tailored to their needs, enabling real-time, dynamic information exchange. As well as the Morpheus system data analysis dashboards, the portal also includes the online digital documentation for machines purchased, the Service Platform to handle service requests directly with the Marchesini Group after-sales service, and the interactive parts manual for faster, more efficient ordering of genuine Marchesini Group parts.
Another leading-edge solution on view on the stand is augmented reality size change, a service developed by the Group to assist customers in the transfer of information and know-how for the correct use of machines. This simple, user-friendly technology enables pharmaceutical companies to train their own technical staff quickly and effectively, reducing the risk of human error. In fact, everyone working on production lines can benefit from this tool, with step-by-step guidance in the procedures to be performed for the installation of single machine components in the correct positions.
