The solution

Both pharmaceutical companies had a very clear vision of the solution and requirements. These were meticulously written down in a 60 page "User Requirement Specification" (URS) document, cataloguing the 160 minimum technical, software and performance requirements which needed to be 100% fulfilled. The pharmaceutical company made it clear that there was no room for compromise on these 160 requirements. During the 5 day Factory Acceptance Test (FAT), carried out on each unit, all these requirements were thoroughly tested and a 0.02% false reject rate, at a line speed of 350 ppm, was achieved. Only after all tests had been passed and fully documented was approval given for delivery.

Why METTLER TOLEDO Garvens?

These very complex projects were processed by Wulf Pries and Frank Bormann at the Garvens production site in Giesen, Germany. During a recent interview Mr Pries stated that: "There were three main reasons why the two companies chose METTLER TOLEDO Garvens: The first was the trust which had been built up between the two companies and METTLER TOLEDO Garvens through many years of business. The next was the very reliable worldwide service and support essential for global operations. The final reason was that only Garvens was able to satisfy all requirement specifications and deliver the very consistent and high quality product needed for the applications."

"A further area of great interest is always the choice of printing and vision inspection systems" continued Mr Bormann. "The decision for this pharmaceutical company was really quite simple. One of the companies already had experience with using printing systems from Domino and Wolke and vision systems from Systech, Laetus and Cognex. All these companies were already listed as one of their trusted partners. The URS specified 3 different marking and vision configurations depending on country of delivery, production line constraints and application requirements. The integration of these marking and vision systems was no problem for METTLER TOLEDO Garvens as the XS2 MV was designed to work with all possible combinations of all leading printing and vision verification system components."

Strong strategic partnership

One small but very interesting point Mr Pries mentioned at the end of interview was that he noticed that the relationship between the two pharmaceutical companies and Garvens had changed. Either pharmaceutical company now regarded METTLER TOLEDO Garvens more as an important strategic partner and not just an equipment supplier.

Major system advantages and benefits

The XS2 MV is the most compact complete serialisation and checkweighing solution at present on the market needing only minimal floor space which allows a seamless integration into all production lines with the absolute minimum of production line re-engineering. There are two major plus points which make the XS2 MV so innovative and interesting for multinational pharmaceutical companies:
Flexibility – The XS2 MV has been designed to be a standard solution which will satisfy the requirements for the majority of production lines where global deployment is planned. It also has enough flexibility to offer bespoke solutions where a standard solution is not possible.

Designed for trusted partners – The XS2 MV has been designed to function with a multitude of world leading marking and vision inspection systems giving complete freedom to choose components from suppliers already designated as "trusted partners" which greatly simplifies the integration into IT networks by using tried and tested data communication protocols.

All components which include world leading ink jet printing or laser marking systems, high-resolution verification systems, mechanical transfer units, weighing assembly, automatic labeller and 3 separate sorting devices, have been finely tuned to work in perfect unison even at extremely high speeds up to 90 m/min.

Application functionality

The high precision mechanical transfer unit takes the carton directly from the cartoner and transfers it to the printer in the optimal position for serialisation marking. The marking is verified for legibility and correctness using a very sensitive optical vision inspection system before transferring the carton to the weighing section. Once the correct weight has been verified the carton is then transferred to the labeller for additional marking. The XS2 MV can optionally detect whether the box has open flaps or is not correctly aligned to protect the printer head and downstream bundle packaging equipment. All cartons where the marking or weight cannot be 100% verified as being "good" are reliably rejected into lockable catch bins. Each unit has its own catch bin to effectively separate and sort rejected items. Finally all "good" boxes are safely transferred to the customer’s conveyor for further processing.

Full Track & Trace compliance

The XS2 MV is fully compliant with current pharmaceutical regulations and guidelines for the many different Track & Trace concepts presently in use. The open software interface concept eases communication with all standard data protocols and network systems with simple upgrade procedures for future Track & Trace requirements where standards may change or are evolving.

The XS2 MV Marking and Verification system is a complete serialisation solution giving Track & Trace capabilities to existing or new production lines with the highest degree of flexibility presently available on the market.