MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION
Glycerin Suppository
Manufacturing System
Background
In order to maintain a dominant market share
position, this customer wanted to lower their manufacturing costs
by building a faster, more automated system for producing bulk
packed suppositories. Since off-the-shelf machines do not exist
for making bulk packed suppositories, this client returned to
Advent Design to accomplish this task.
System Description
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Advent designed,
built, and installed a custom machine for this client in
1988 that was capable of molding 1,200,000 suppositories
per day. In 1996, this client required additional capacity,
increased automation and process control to comply with
new GMP regulations. Advent designed a new generation machine
that could mold 2,400,000 per day, and included advanced
controls that were GMP compliant.
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| This
second-generation system performed the following operations: |
- Delivered molten Glycerin from a holding
tank on a mezzanine to the mold fill station.
- Filled a 200 cavity mold with Glycerin.
- Cooled the mold until the Glycerin was
at the correct process temperature.
- Cracked mold for suppository extraction.
- Separated mold and transferred suppositories
to jar filling station.
- Ejected suppositories directly into
jars.
- Replaced mold top and prepared for
next fill.
- Automatically recycled overfill from
mold top.
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Impact
This second generation system allowed
Advent’s client to maintain GMP compliance, while dramatically
increasing the throughput of the process. Since this totally automated
system required a single operator to tend its operation, it also
decreased the cost of this commodity product which faced decreasing
margins in the marketplace.
