Actualités

PrintSpect keeps track of everything

From 31 December 2010, French CIP 13 coding requirements must be introduced, and this presents a challenge to the pharma packaging industry. Security requirements continue to increase world wide: Turkey has, for example, announced implementation of stage 1 of ITS (Ilac Takip Sistemi) – generally known as ITS Pharmaceuticals Track & Trace System – for October 2009, and from 2015, the California ePedigree Law will require complete traceability of any pharmaceutical product.

The Track and Trace system, PrintSpect, from Laetus is the perfect solution to meet precisely this challenge.
PrintSpect ensures smooth marking and verification in the pharmaceutical production process and can be easily integrated into existing packaging procedures. The modular and extendable structure of the system ensures the application’s conformity to existing and already known future marking requirements.

 

35 years of experience bring success

“Our challenge was to develop a system that can be integrated almost seamlessly into existing production processes”, said Günter Rodeck, Laetus Director of Product Management Standard Systems and Business Development, whose long years of experience in this field have brought great advantage to the company.
“Anyone working in this area for the past 35 years, as we have done, knows precisely what challenges and demands they are up against when developing a new system”, Mr Rodeck continued.
“We wanted to find a complete, fully-integrated solution for our customers. So we took our tried and tested INSPECT wt camera system and installed new software in it. This means the bar code quality check is carried out in accordance with ANSI/ISO standards, and in addition, conformity with GS1 standards is checked. One camera checks article numbers, sell-by dates, batch numbers and other printed identification“, Mr Rodeck explained. The operation terminal not only jointly controls the camera and integrated printer, but also any other machine involved in the process.

 

Versatile and adaptable

Günter Rodeck continued: “We know that manufacturers like to stick to components they have trusted for years, and that’s why Laetus offers several options, depending on requirements. For example, the customer can order the control camera without the printing unit. We have the expertise and the appropriate software to synchronise the units with each other and integrate them smoothly into current production in accordance with the customer’s individual requirements.
But its ability to seamlessly upgrade or extend the use of wt systems is another reason why PrintSpect is so attractive to the pharma industry as a complete package including the printer unit.”
Laetus insisted on competence and high standards from its potential partners, since the high quality demanded of its own products naturally applies to components from outside.

To demonstrate PrintSpect’s versatility, Laetus developed two types of machine, offering different features, in collaboration with partners.
With the COESIA Group, a vacuum belt was developed that allows folding boxes to go through the inline printing process easily and simultaneously be printed on three sides. This solution means that up to 400 packages per minute can be processed.
In conjunction with another partner, Laetus offers a compact machine that processes 150 packages per minute. “There was no point offering the manufacturer a solution that couldn’t be integrated into the existing line since that would mean carrying out modifications to the production unit – that was our starting point. The solution had to be as small as possible in order to fit into almost any production line, and that’s what we’ve done” added Mr Rodeck with some pride.

 

A perfect future guaranteed

Coordinated system components guarantee high quality printing and checking procedures. All data undergoes secure validation processes and invalid or faultily printed packages are safely removed from the further packaging process. Modularity is of course ensured on other machines and it is certain that Laetus will develop other models in future.

The packaging sector can look forward to a secure future with PrintSpect – French CIP regulations without serialisation, Turkish ITS and Californian Law with serialisation can all be handled.