BLISTERING


The foil blisters are produced from a hot-formed foil ribbon (PVC, PS, PE) using temperature, pressure and vacuum. These are then filled with tablets from above by feeding and dosing equipment and then enclosed by sealing them with an aluminum or plastic backing sheet. At the last step, the blister packs are cut into sections to obtain the individual packaging.

In the final stage, the blisters are cut off to produce individual packs. Typically the machines are designed to process several sheets so that they can manufacturer up to six rows of blisters concurrently. At speeds of 60 cycles/min, multiple-sheet machines can produce up to 400 blisters per minute.

Solution

Speed and angular position synchronization will be done within the drive using MASTERDRIVE MC or newly introduced SIMOTION D. Virtual master function is a key feature. One axis typically will control the plastic film feeding into the machine. All of the other axes will operate specific functions such as gearing, camming or print mark syncronizing as the plastic film length is indexed into the machine.

Typically, the sheet feed rate is the reference for the entire system. A SIMATIC S7-300 PLC is used to maintain the appropriate vacuum and pressure levels for the forming and sealing sections.

The PLC would also control the temperature levels within the machine. A SIMATIC S7-IT Module would allow maintenance to occur remotely via the World Wide Web. A SIMATIC touch panel would allow for easy configuration, troubleshooting and control. Connecting each system over industrial Ethernet can develop modular plant wide solution.