The Alpla Group’s pharma packaging division ALPLApharma to expand its manufacturing technology for OTC bottles with the addition of flexible extrusion blow moulding (EBM), which makes sustainable and customer-specific packaging solutions possible in this area.
In addition to the injection blow moulding (IBM) technology, the company has been using until now, it will henceforth also offer its customers EBM technology in its production activities. This is a standard technology at the ALPLA sites around the world and the company has decades of proven expertise in this field.
Walter Knes, ALPLA Managing Director ALPLApharma said, ‘The market for OTC containers is becoming more and more important for us. What’s known as the pill container market is now huge. At the same time, the customers’ requirements regarding sustainable, weight-reduced and cost-effective containers have increased around the world, which is why we are expanding both our technological and commercial scope with EBM and are in a position to cater to a wider array of requests.”
Arriving at the optimum packaging together
All the advantages that the EBM procedure to be applied to OTC container production. The EBM technology allows the thickness of the container walls to be adapted to the type and consistency of the contents. At the same time, it allows the sealing surface at the neck opening to be increased, thus also increasing leak tightness.
There is additionally the option of combining different thin-walled layers with product-specific oxygen barriers.
Explaining the additional advantages of the technology being offered, Andreas Lorenz, Technical Account Manager at ALPLA said, “Overall, EBM affords the customers the flexibility to work with us to identify just the right OTC packaging for their product and requirements – all usually in a continuous improvement process involving a single mould. The throughput times are also faster, which results in greater output.”
Matching childproof cap
As a system provider, ALPLApharma to also offer the perfect caps for its OTC bottles. These include CRC justONE, a unique, childproof screw cap with a tamper-evident band which is highly efficiently manufactured in a single injection moulding process and then directly assembled.
Conventional caps are produced in three separate production steps and then assembled later.
(Source: Alpla)