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 two billion pouches annually for solid doses, liquids, creams and ointments. Child-resistant features are available for a variety of package designs. Sharp 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, semi-solid, liquid, powder, creams, and ointments. 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 soliddose product formats including tablets, capsules, caplets, gel caps or even confectionery items such as mints and gum. Sharp can also handle items that can not be oriented and fed automatically. Semi-solid and Liquid Products The range of semi-solid and liquid products that Sharp can package goes from very thick products like creams and ointments to very thin substances such as water or alcohol. Sharp has a variety of feeding heads that can be adapted for several different types of pouching equipment. Tight tolerances can be held even with small fill sizes. Powder Products Sharp can package a variety of powder products using two different filling methods. This first method is with auger fillers that move the powdered material into the pouch. The other method, slide valve, is best suited for granular and free flowing product. NOTE: Review of the MSDS information and approval by Sharp is required prior to packaging any new product Pouch Material Sharp works with the top manufacturers of packaging materials to provide our customers with the highest quality structures available. Sharp will package your product for stability testing to assure selected structures meet your product requirement. Swabs and Pledgets Sharp produces a half 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" Utli-Pak to 12" Mega-Pak to 6 1/2" Utili-Pak continuous motion pouching machines best suited for solid dose pouch packaging. The Vertical C-1 intermittent motion machines are well suited for a wide range of pouches for products including powders, liquids, creams or lotions. Sharp also utilizes Klöckner Bartlet machines for both liquid and swab packaging. The newest addition is the Klöckner LA-500 intermittent pouch machine suited for liquids, tablets and powders. Sharp uses vertical, rotary or crimp roller formats 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 on both sides of the package and to print inline one color for coding. Tooling Sharp offers in-house tooling design and manufacture of pouch equipment tooling. Sharp engineers design tooling using CAD/CAM systems to assure accurate and custom fit of the product in the cavity. Our in-house milling machines are capable of creating 3D milling forms, dies and throats as well as machine repairs. Typical lead times for tooling are 4-6 weeks. Sharp keeps an inventory of all tooling. Child Resistant Features Sharp has a patented child resistant feature for pouches known as the pinhole opening. A pin-hole, slit or notch is made in the corner or center of the sealing edge area, the consumer folds the pouch at 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. Tipping, Cartons and Dispensers Sharp has the ability to perform glue tipping, where finished pouches are adhered to pre-printed marketing cards/other materials for sampling purposes. Finished pouches can be placed in individual cartons or dispensers, packed in multiples in containers or trays, and then bulked packed in corrugated boxes. Cartons and dispensers can be banded or shrinkwrapped prior to bulk packing. Sharp prints and produces cartons and trays at our in-house printing and component production facility. Sharp will validate the bottling process selected for each project. 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.