AstraZeneca orders full labelling solution
When AstraZeneca planned to introduce four different concentrations of an injectable anaesthetic, it asked Newman to provide a secure labelling solution at the pharmaceutical company's manufacturing facility in Macclesfield.
The new formulations, plus the original one, were differentiated by colour-coded aluminium ring-pull caps sealing two sizes of vial-50ml and 100ml. A Newman 8FL labeller was chosen as the main labelling platform to give complete product and label tracking. The contract also included a Newman rotary turntable in-feed.
A Systech two-camera vision system was selected for both OCV and colour cap/ring detection. The first camera provides positive verification of the variable overprint information and Pharmacode, while the second identifies the product by checking the colour of the vial cap together with the differentiation between silver and gold ring pulls.
Variable data is printed on the labels using an Allen Coding thermal transfer coder. Up to three lines of text can be required with up to 20 characters per line and the added facility of printing in Russian, Polish and Nordic characters.