Watson-Marlow Pumps Group: Press Overview – PPMA ‘11
Leading pump company, Watson-Marlow Pumps Group F20 will showcase its range of positive displacement pumps and liquid filling technologies at the 2011 PPMA Exhibition. Visitors to Watson-Marlow’s stand will be able to see at first hand, a range of products and solutions from three distinct parts of the Group:
Flexicon Liquid Filling
Visitors from the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotechnology sectors will be interested in the aseptic liquid filling, plugging and crimp capping system from Flexicon Liquid Filling. This technology is ideally suited to small to medium-sized batch production flexibility – from laboratory benchtop to clinic trial stage – where high precision and efficiency are required. The Flexicon suite of products includes stand-alone units for manual filling, semi-automatic systems, as well as fully automatic filling, stoppering and capping machines. The fully automatic systems are customised to fit any glass vial, plastic bottle, test tube, eye-dropper, or non-self-standing microtube.
Of particular interest will be Flexicon’s new FF30 aseptic filling and capping machine. Ideal for caps which cannot easily be mounted automatically, the FF30 delivers a consistent level of production quality which is impossible to maintain by manual assembly of bottles and caps. Its speed can be easily adjusted to match the working speed of the operator and liquids can be filled automatically in volumes from 0.1ml to approximately 100ml. The FF30 ensures clean production without risk of cross-contamination; a consistent cap torque prevents any leakage of liquid, while a bottle/cap change takes a maximum of just five minutes, thus helping improving uptime and productivity.
The machine’s small footprint makes it ideal for use in laminar air flow units or bio-safety cabinets. Offering a capacity of up to 1200 bottles per hour (depending on filling volume and operator), key application areas include the diagnostic industry, hospital pharmacies, R&D departments, essential oil manufacturers, cosmetics producers and general subcontract fill/finish companies.
A user-panel featuring intuitive software is supplied as standard on this IP52 rated, predominantly stainless-steel structured machine. Optional fillers include the PF6 or 520Di peristaltic fillers. A customised version of the machine is available for crimp capping of aluminium caps.
MasoSine Sanitary and Industrial Positive Displacement Pumps
MasoSine positive displacement pumps can be used for a variety of transfer and filling applications up to 90 cubic metres/hr and pressures up to 15 bar. With an exclusive sinusoidal rotor which overcomes the limitations of conventional rotary lobe pumps, MasoSine pumps produce powerful suction with gentle handling capability.
The low shear product handling characteristics of MasoSine pumps – such as the SPS model – will be of particular interest to customers in the pharmaceutical and food industries. The wave-like action of the MasoSine models combines with a single rotor design to offer very low propulsion, while large pumping chambers help preserve and maintain product integrity. Because of their simple design (one rotor, one shaft, one seal), economical in-line maintenance and cleaning is also easily achieved.
Watson-Marlow Peristaltic Pumps
As the world’s largest manufacturer of peristaltic pumps and tubing, Watson-Marlow will also showcase its core technologies at PPMA 2011. Widely accepted as the world’s fastest growing pump type, peristaltic pumps have no valves, seals or glands to wear, leak or replace, and the fluid contacts only the bore of the hose or tube, eliminating the risk of the pump contaminating the fluid, or the fluid contaminating the pump.
Peristaltic pumps have a number of advantages over other pump types: they provide superior flow rate stability, accuracy to +/-0.5%; they are ideal for viscous and abrasive fluids as well as sterile processes; have extensive chemical compatibility; and are inherently hygienic and safe to run. In all, they offer the lowest whole life cost of all pump types.
