The keys to success for contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) in the pharmaceutical industry are high efficiency, speed and reliability. By pursuing these goals, the Swedish company\u00a0Recipharm\u00a0<\/a>has become one of the top five players worldwide. It most recently reported revenues of around 1.1 billion euros, generated by almost 9,000 employees in 30 production facilities across ten countries. From tablets, capsules and inhalation drug devices to other pharmaceutical goods, its comprehensive services cover the entire life cycle of a product. Recipharm consistently strives to get products to market in a time- and cost-efficient way.<\/p>\n This ambition also applies to its\u00a0plant in Pianezza<\/a>\u00a0near Turin, which among other things produces more than 100 million blisters a year. But it\u2019s the number of variants, rather than the sheer quantity, that poses the biggest challenge. \u201cWe currently have nearly 90 active artworks,\u201d explains Gerardo Cappitella, the company\u2019s Operations Director in Pianezza. In order to achieve high overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) despite the enormous number of SKUs and fluctuating batch sizes, Recipharm relies on digital inline printing technology. \u201cIt enables us to use just a single grade of blank aluminum foil, which helps us reduce complexity in the supply chain and optimize warehousing.\u201d In the last few years, Recipharm has adapted three existing high-speed blister lines to accommodate Hapa DOD inkjet technology. \u201cWe are more than satisfied with the outcome,\u201d insists Cappitella. \u201cWe were looking for a solution that would allow us to print all of the world\u2019s languages, including Chinese with its complicated characters.\u201d<\/p>\n Against this background, Recipharm opted in favor of the\u00a0Hapa WebJet<\/a>. This versatile, single-color digital printing system can be integrated in most any blister line. It prints graphics, text and variable data, including unusual characters and codes, with phenomenal clarity and a resolution of 360 dpi. \u201cThat was a key requirement for us because the drugs we produce are distributed all around the world,\u201d says the Recipharm Operations Director. \u201cBy eliminating the need to produce physical artwork or adjust printing systems mechanically, we can change the print output instantly in any way to reflect the needs of our customers or relevant regulatory authorities.\u201d The Hapa WebJets take care of both the artwork and printing the lot number and expiry date on every blister pocket.<\/p>\n Before transitioning to Hapa technology, Recipharm had already trialed digital inline printing in Pianezza, initially with toner-based systems. \u201cUnfortunately, these printing systems only delivered a low resolution and, to achieve an acceptable quality, required long setup times and relatively large quantities of aluminum foil,\u201d comments Gerardo Cappitella. This also entailed lengthy and recurring production interruptions for the blister lines. Thanks to the adopted Hapa solution, the plant in Pianezza has reduced aluminum foil consumption by 30 percent and downtimes by 20 percent. Another drawback of the toner technology was the previous manufacturer\u2019s lack of Italian-speaking engineers. Communication was inevitably very difficult at times. \u201cAnd we had to schedule engineers\u2019 visits a long time in advance, which isn\u2019t acceptable in the event of unforeseen breakdowns.\u201d In contrast, Hapa has been cooperating for decades with a dense global network of experienced service partners operating in their home markets. The Italian partner\u00a0Vis Viva<\/a>\u00a0has sites in Perugia and near Novara, so that a rapid response is always ensured. \u201cOur partners also have detailed knowledge of the pharmaceutical sector\u2019s requirements. In consequence, they collaborate very productively with both us and, of course, our customers,\u201d explains a Hapa expert.<\/p>\n \u201cInstalling the Hapa printers immediately delivered huge benefits. We slashed setup times, and all of us were very impressed by the print quality from the outset,\u201d comments Cappitella. \u201cOur customers responded extremely positively to these improvements as well.\u201d The hardware was only one of the contributory factors. Given that Hapa also develops and produces its own inks, it can match these perfectly to customers\u2019 preferred substrates and downstream processes. \u201cWe had to align our artworks with the new technology, of course, and train our operators,\u201d reports Cappitella. \u201cBut Hapa and Vis Viva provided excellent support right from the start.\u201d The operators are now delighted with the Hapa technology \u2013 for one thing, cleaning the old toner-based system was hard work. Liquid ink makes cleaning simpler and it is easily and quickly topped up without interrupting production.<\/p>\n Recipharm plans to install another Hapa printer in Pianezza, in a new blister line, in 2022. The successful CDMO attaches importance to future-proof investments for other reasons as well. Looking ahead, Gerardo Cappitella says, \u201cIt\u2019s conceivable that some customers will want to migrate from printing blisters only in one color to two colors, such as black and red, without losing any existing efficiency and quality benefits. We already know that Hapa is even capable of printing CMYK colors digitally and inline.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How Hapa technology is helping Recipharm in Pianezza reduce aluminum foil consumption in blister production by 30 percent while maximizing efficiency The keys to success for contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) in the pharmaceutical industry are high efficiency, speed and reliability. By pursuing these goals, the Swedish company\u00a0Recipharm\u00a0has become one of the top five […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-3440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visviva.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visviva.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visviva.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visviva.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visviva.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/visviva.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visviva.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visviva.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visviva.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visviva.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Instantaneous changes<\/h3>\n
No more compromises<\/h3>\n
End-to-end solution<\/h3>\n
A future-proof choice<\/h3>\n