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| United Drug PLC
• United Drug PLC • United Drug Packaging |
Specialists in Pouches/Sachets/Packettes Sharp is an industry leader in innovative, attractive, economical and consumer-friendly pouches, sachets and packettes. As the oldest contract packager in North America, Sharp has been producing pouches for more than 80 years. This experience has helped Sharp develop a comprehensive array of pouch designs and production capabilities including our own proprietary form/fill/seal equipment. Sharp has the capacity to produce more than one billion solid dose pouches and another quarter billion pouches for liquids, creams, powders and single use blisters. Child-resistant features are available for a variety of package designs. Sharp also has developed the exclusive Tri-Lam design for tandem packaging of dual products that allow single delivery applications. Look to Sharp for unique design options for your specific product requirement. Sharp can produce a variety of pouches for almost any product format including solid dose, semi-solid, liquid, powders, creams, and single use blisters. The range of packaging materials extends from coated papers to high barrier foil and polymer laminates. Sharp has designed and developed some of the most innovative pouches in the industry. Solid Dose Products Sharp can package a variety of solid dose product formats including tablets, capsules, caplets, gel caps or even confectionery items such as mints and gum. Sharp can also handle items that cannot be oriented and fed automatically. Semi-solid and Liquid Products The range of semi-solid and liquid products Sharp can package runs from very thick products, like creams and ointments, to very thin substances such as water or alcohol. Tight tolerance fills can be achieved even with small fill sizes. Powder Products Sharp can package a variety of free flow and non free flow powders. Free flow powders, not requiring a close tolerance fill, can be augered into a diverter head, then funneled into multiple "up" configurations. Free flow powders requiring close tolerance fills and non free flow powders must be augered individually into multiple "up" configurations. NOTE: Review of the MSDS information and approval by Sharp is required prior to packaging any new product. Pouch Material There are a variety of films available, dependant on the customer's requirements. Sharp works with top film manufacturers, to provide our customers with the highest quality, competitively priced, film structures available. Child tamper resistant films, as well as easy open films are available. Sharp can package customer's products, for stability testing, to assure selected structures meet the customer's requirements. Sharp's film vendors can also print the film using the customer's supplied art work. Art work design services are available. Child Resistant Feature Sharp has a child resistant feature, for pouches, known as the pinhole opening. A pin-hole, slit or notch is made within the corner or center of the sealed edge. The consumer folds the pouch across the opening and tears at notch. This feature can also be resealed to disguise the notch for further security. Sharp Package Designers can develop a package with the best child-resistant and senior friendly opening features available. Easy Open Tear Notch Feature Some films require assistance to allow the film to start tearing. A tear notch can be added to the outer edge of the seal making the film easier to tear. This notch style does not require the consumer to fold the pouch seal before tearing, however this notch is NOT child-resistant. Swabs and Pledgets Sharp can produce up to one quarter billion swabs and pledgets annually. Capabilities include an in-line process for cutting the web roll, dosing the product, and pouching. Packaging Equipment Sharp uses proprietary equipment designed and manufactured by Ivers-Lee, the original company name prior to being acquired by Sharp in 1996. These machines range from the 19" Utila-Pak to 12" Mega-Pak to 6 1/2" Utila-Pak continuous motion pouching machines best suited for solid dose pouching. The Vertical C-1 intermittent motion machines are well suited for a wide range of pouches for products including powders, liquids, creams and single use blisters. Sharp also utilizes Klöckner Bartlet machines for many pouching applications. The newest addition is the Klöckner LA-500 intermittent pouch machine is suited for liquids, tablets, powders and single use blisters. Sharp uses vertical flat seal and rotary crimp roller seal dies for sealing pouches. Web widths range from 6.5 inches to 39 inches depending upon the equipment used. The equipment also has the ability to run preprinted, registered, materials for both outer faces of the pouch. In-line, one color lot and date coding is available on all equipment. Tooling Sharp offers in-house tool design and fabrication of pouch feeding tooling. Sharp engineers design tooling using CAD/CAM systems to assure accuracy. Our in-house milling machines are capable of creating 3D milling forms, dies and feeder components as well as equipment repairs. Typical lead times for tooling are 4-6 weeks. Sharp inventories all, customer purchased, product dedicated tooling. Tipping Sharp has the ability to perform glue tipping where finished pouches are adhered to pre-printed marketing cards or other materials for sampling purposes. Printed cards can be produced, by Sharp, at our in-house printing facility. Over-wrapping Pouches can also be over-wrapped with literature, other pouches and/ or components, to form a single unit. Over-wrap can be purchased clear or can be printed with colorful art, per the customer. Lot & date code is an option. Cartons and Dispensers Finished pouches can be placed into individual cartons, scatter packed into dispensers, rack packed in multiple counts, into containers or trays, then bulked packed in corrugated boxes. Cartons and dispensers can be banded or shrink wrapped prior to bulk packing. Sharp also prints and produces cartons and trays at our in-house production printing facility. Quality Controls Sharp utilizes checkweighers and inspection devices throughout the packaging process to assure quality. Our dedicated quality assurance/quality control personnel assure strict CGMP compliance to SOPs and FDA regulations. Accurate, detailed, batch record documentation accompanies every project. Sharp Quality supervisors and inspectors monitor the entire process. Sharp will validate the pouching process selected for each project. |