For smaller scale runs the Mini-Cap semi-automatic capsule filling machine is the ideal tool. This neat unit contains two stations to orientate and fill capsules in cycles of up to 100 per time giving an hourly output of up to 2,500 capsules per hour.

One of the issues with overencapsulation has always been getting the tablet feeder to work correctly with limited availability of product for testing. Isopak, in conjunction with Dott. Bonapace have devised a number of solutions to get around this issue. For more information please call 01780 410093.

With Rotomac now part of the IMS Deltamatic group Isopak is not able to supply a wider range of different machinery including rewinding and slitting solutions. IMS specialise in making bespoke solutions for specific rewinding problems. IMS have also recently begun to offer a range of vertical injection moulding machines. These machines have a variety of applications and are the only ones of their kind currently on the market.

Catalent Pharma Solutions Limited, a global supplier of drug-delivery technology, purchased Isopak’s popular Minicap 100 semiautomatic capsule filling machine to fulfil a special project for an important overseas customer, who needed trials of DB capsules.

Both the Minicap 100 and its sister machine, the Minicap 50, are used in hospitals, research and development laboratories, for clinical trials and small batch output. The Minicap 100 is capable of an output of 2500 capsules per hour and is the first choice for many companies wanting a cost effective, well made machine suitable for small runs.

The Minicap 100 is ideal for coping with the short, chunkier type of capsules involved in the trials the American owned company are carrying out at Catalent’s Bolton site in Lancashire.

It has both an orientator and filler on a common base for ease of bench top mounting and movement. It can handle all the conventional sizes of capsules, both hard gelatine and HPMC, in sizes from 00 to 4, and also size 000 and DB capsules in special execution.

Semiautomatic operation makes the machines suitable for handling difficult powders and products which do not flow easily, such as in herbal, homeopathic, nutritional and natural product industries.

Robin Davies, Isopak’s managing director, said: “More and more companies are looking for capsule filling solutions, specific to their application. And the Minicap 100 is the only machine available that offers high versatility at a low price.”

Isopak is a leading player in the supply of equipment to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Machines offered include tablet presses, blistering units, capsule processing and filling – all suitable for a wide range of applications.

Orbis Consumer Products Limited purchased a BP10 suppository filling machine and BP11 suppository sealing unit, distributed by Isopak for Italian-based manufacturer Dott. Bonapace, after watching a demonstration of the machines at the CPhl event in Paris.

North London-based Orbis deals with liquid manufacturing at its Park Royal facility and required the combined equipment for filling and sealing glycerol and other over the counter products.

Isopak’s BP10 can produce up to 6,000 suppositories an hour using pre-formed shell fed from reels. This gives great flexibility as it allows a wide range of sizes and shapes to be produced with a filling range from 0 to 3.5ml in 0.1 increments. Once filled, the shells are rewound into reels which can be placed in an optional cooling unit.

The reels are then fed into the BP11 sealing machine which closes the shells and trims the top edge of the pack before cutting a pre-set but adjustable number of suppositories into a strip.

Orbis director Hitesh Vaghjiani is enthusiastic about the machines’ performance and level of service he received from Isopak. He said: “I saw a demonstration of the equipment at a Paris show and liked it. It’s easy to set up and very operator friendly. It has helped us to produce a whole new product range. It is the first time I have used Isopak and I am very satisfied.”

Hitesh is also happy to give Isopak a glowing recommendation to others in a very tight market where there is a glut of dated suppository machines operating worldwide.

Stamford-based Isopak’s managing director Robin Davies said: “There are a huge number of these types of machines around the world including many in the UK but they are all very old. The BP10 and BP11 are Dott. Bonapace’s latest models and can be supplied as separate bench top machines or integrated to form a compact production station for suppositories.”

These units are part of a range of high-quality equipment suitable for a variety of different applications available from Isopak, including the In-Cap capsule filler, an Easystrip SPB4 single-dose pouch making machine and the CPR-18 and CPR-6 tablet presses.

The powerful new CPR-18 rotary tablet press, available in the UK and Ireland from Isopak, has been developed for a variety of operations including Research & Development, laboratories and for medium production batches.

It complements the renowned In-Cap capsule filling machine and is manufactured in Europe, which is sure to be a crucial factor against comparable types of equipment built to less exacting standards from other parts of the world.

Built to last, the competitively priced CPR-18 is very robustly constructed so that there is no flexing of the machine, even when running at top speed with its maximum load, and it has a massive compression force of up to six tonnes – which is a lot for a bench top machine.

It can also run 10 B type punches for tablets of up to 16mm diameter or can be supplied to run D type tooling with eight stations handling punches of up to 22mm in diameter – and it has a maximum output of an impressive 18,000 tablets per hour.

Versatility is the key to this machine so it can also operate with just one punch all the way up to full output capacity, making it ideal for small scale batches, clinical trials and product developments.

A further big plus for the CPR-18 is its quick tool changes, which can be made in less than 30 minutes and there is also easy access to all parts of the machine through eight doors.

Stamford based Isopak’s managing director, Robin Davies, believes it can give low cost manufacturers a run for their money, in the design, build quality and output of its latest machine.

He said: “Dott. Bonapace manufactures a very high quality range of pharmaceutical machines and we hope the latest addition of the CPR-18 to its range of equipment will bring much-needed competitiveness to the market for this type of machinery. “

The machine is currently available as a plain unit but a fully instrumented version is being developed and will be available shortly, allowing measurements of the pre-compression, top and bottom punch compression forces and the ejection forces for each station.

In the UK and Ireland, Isopak has already installed countless Dott. Bonapace machines and is now hoping that many of these satisfied companies will purchase the CPR-18. The firm’s satisfied customer base includes hospitals, universities, research departments, pharmaceutical companies and numerous related organisations.

Dott. Bonapace has over sixty years of experience producing high quality equipment and is already well-know in the pharmaceutical sector for its precise capsule filling machines, including the famous In-Cap machine and an extensive range of other small scale operating systems.

Isopak is firmly established as a leading supplier of equipment to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and converting industries and its growing reputation had not gone unnoticed by one of R5’s two founding directors Paul Titley who was quick to put what he had learnt into operation.

Mr Titley, chief executive of the company, said: ‘‘I had been in the business 30 years when we set up R5 and the name of Isopak was therefore very familiar. I have seen the name about a lot and know other companies that have got their kit. So we thought we would give them a try.’’

The result is an In-cap capsule filler from Italian manufacturers Dott Bonapace, for whom Isopak are sole UK distributors of a high quality range of machines suitable for a variety of applications including tablet pressing, blister units and capsule processing.

But the In-cap supplied to R5 – who have set up shop in part of BioCity, the new complex which has arisen from the ashes of the former Boots/BASF research facility in Nottingham – is just that little bit special.

Isopak managing director Robin Davies explained: ‘‘We have pre-arranged the machine so that it is set to cope not just with powder and pellet feeders as required by R5 now, is also pre engineered for tablet and liquid filling. This company inherited a lot of kit when it moved into BioCity but it needed a small-scale filler for the small quantities its clinical trials are engaged with.’’

And small-scale as well as large-scale is what Isopak is renowned for, with the In-cap standing out among the Dott Bonapace range. It scores highly in the versatility and simplicity of operation stakes, which makes it the ideal choice for use in research and development laboratories, for clinical trials and for small batch and specialist productions.

It has a newly-designed, low-volume hopper which allows operation with as little as 50 grammes of powder, thus cutting wastage. It represents Italian engineering at its best and is attracting a great deal of market attention.

Certainly it has scored highly with R5; a company which only began operating a few months ago but which already has high ideals and likes its suppliers to have much the same. Executives, delighted with the machine, were also hugely impressed by Isopak’s service speed and quality. ‘‘It took six weeks from our first meeting to installation, which is pretty impressive,’’ said Mr Titley. Par for the course for Isopak!

The Surrey hospital wanted to end the tedious process of producing quality control samples for diagnostic equipment, particularly in the Q-point test solution for the blood sugar metres used by diabetics. The job had been done by hand-filling pre-formed plastic pipettes with a special glucose-based liquid and then sealing them, again manually, with a Bunsen burner. But it was not an effective use of staff time or other resources and a better operation was needed.

So they called in Isopak who together with Milan-based experts Dott Bonapace, for whom they are sole UK distributors of a range of quality products, tailored an Easystrip SPB 4 single-dose pouch-making machine to produce small sachets of the solution containing a bottle-like form with a very small neck.

Each 30mm by 40mm sachet is automatically dosed with about 0.2ml of the liquid and the hospital is delighted with the results. The Easystrip SPB 4 now does on its own in only 100 minutes what used to take three days – with input from lots of laboratory staff who can now get on with tasks they are employed to do instead of tackling time-consuming, fiddly work. And the sachets are attached to letters sent to patients supplied with diagnostic equipment so quick and easy checks can be made to ensure it is working correctly and giving the required results.

Isopak’s managing director, Robin Davies says: “The hospital bought the machine because it is small, compact and mounted on castors for ease of movement and because it is one of the most economically-priced units of its type on the market. Typical of the Bonapace range, it is designed for relatively low output production for small-scale, niche-type products and is simple and easy to use.”

The hospital’s requirements were case-specific and, with very small volumes needed in each sachet, were outside the range of standard equipment. But that was no problem to the technicians at Isopak. They sourced a supplier of high-accuracy dosing equipment and working together the partners came up with the goods and sent them to Bonapace for integration into the unit. Isopak also supplied a coding device to emboss a batch code on to each sachet, a print registration system and a notching device to allow easy opening of packs.

‘’The machine has made life a lot easier for the point of care team at the hospital and has provided it with spare capacity so it is available to benefit others,’’ said Mr Davies. It will also undoubtedly prove a boon to patients, too.

The School of Pharmacy at Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University was looking for a tablet press for laboratory use by its students and checked out the market both at home and abroad. It eventually narrowed the global field down to just two – Isopak and another company – with Isopak coming out on top.

The school’s spokesman Dr Dale Munday said when the final choice was made there was little to separate the two machines. Both were competitively priced but Isopak outscored its rival because of its advanced software. ‘’We have been very impressed with Isopak’s overall levels of service. The company have bent over backwards to ensure that the machine is what we wanted and is designed to meet our requirements,’’ he said.

And neither Dr Munday nor the students – there are up to 130 in each of the four years catered for by the school and all at some time or another will have need of the tablet press – have been disappointed with the outcome.

The press supplied to what is the UK’s most northerly school of pharmacy – which generally accounts for its insistence on the best equipment as after sales service usually necessitates a lengthy journey – is a CPR-6 from Italian manufacturers Dott Bonapace for whom Isopak is sole UK distributor.

It is capable of producing up to 2,500 tablets an hour, though the students are unlikely to require it to operate to full potential on more than the rare occasion. Rather they produce small quantities of many different tablets for testing and experimentation purposes.

The students and Dr Munday have been impressed by the CPR-6’s robust construction, its ease of operation and – a big plus – by the lack of noise it produces. ‘’It is operating alongside a pair of somewhat elderly presses, one of which has almost reached the end of its life, and they are very noisy. The Isopak press is so quiet,’’ said Dr Munday.

So lack of noise and ease of tool change, to enable different sizes of tablets to be produced one after the other, are two big plus points. Another is convenience with the CPR-6, normally a bench-top unit and one of the world’s smallest at that, mounted on a trolley – which holds the instrumentation hardware – so it can be easily moved around, or out of the way when it is not needed.

Isopak’s managing director Robin Davies said the unit was fully Windows compatible and could be interfaced with almost any PC. ‘’It has been developed to allow the user to see exactly what is happening to their product during pressing. It records all activities and measures the compression forces needed for transfer of product to larger, full-scale production systems. In its new version it really is a very impressive unit and it is not difficult to see why it appealed to the pharmacy school,’’ he said.

Isopak Ltd has supplied a Dott Bonapace In-Cap capsule filling machine, with powder and pellet feeders and an associated BD3000 capsule banding machine.

The decision to purchase the new Dott Bonapace machinery was driven by specific project requirements of Galenica AB to develop a new product for a US located biotechnology company. Initially only a small quantity of drugs will be produced for clinical trials, research and development so a small, yet fully automated capsule filler was required.

Versatility was also an important factor for Galenica AB when choosing the In-Cap so when Isopak Ltd suggested pre-arranging to fit the new capsule filling machine with a liquid filler it became an attractive proposition. Galenica AB needed a machine not only for its current research project on powders but one which had the flexibility to be used on future products which could be in pellet or liquid form.

Isopak Ltd takes pride in maintaining high levels of customer service, and this installation was no exception. Representatives were on hand at the Galenica AB headquarters in Sweden to carry out the Site Acceptance Test and again in Italy to conduct the Factory Acceptance Test.

Machinery is now fully operational at Galenica AB and the company is rapidly reaping the benefits. Capsules previously filled by hand are now being filled quickly with powder using the Dott Bonapace In-Cap capsule filling machine.

Filled capsules are enterically coated with a special substance which ensures controlled release of the drug into the patient’s body at precisely the right point and in the exact position.

Before coating the capsules they are sealed using the Dott Bonapace banding machine to protect the enteric coating. This is an important part of the process because any holes could affect the release point of the chemical or cause leakage, both of which would destroy the effectiveness of this new drug.

Not only does the In-Cap produce clinical batches in a shorter time but it also provides gains in precision and uniformity of the filled capsules.

Galenica AB director of research and development, Henri Hansson says: “I am very satisfied with both the Dott Bonapace In-Cap capsule filling machine and the BD3000 capsule banding machine supplied by Isopak Ltd. The new machines meet our exact needs and the continued high levels of customer service which we have received from Isopak Ltd throughout the installation, have been a real bonus.”