By Linda M. Casatelli, contributing writer

Alcan Global Pharmaceutical Packaging, a division of Alcan Packaging, has recently acquired the Chakan flexible packaging plant from Associated Capsules Pvt. Ltd in India. The acquisition becomes the 40th plant dedicated to the pharmaceutical industry that the company operates in 16 countries. Alcan Packaging, a business unit of Rio Tinto Alcan, is a global leader in providing value-added specialty packaging to the food, pharmaceutical, beauty and tobacco markets. Headquartered in Paris, France, Alcan Packaging has 130 facilities and 30,000 employees in 31 countries. It generated $6.2 billion in revenues in 2007.
      With annual sales of $3.6 million, the Chakan facility is a leading supplier to the Indian pharmaceutical market, with integration into the Alcan Packaging Group is expected to be completed in 2009. The Chakan operations will serve to expand the company's geographical footprint, as well as strengthening its strategic presence in the Indian pharmaceutical market.
      "The acquisition of this facility advances our leadership position in pharmaceutical flexibles through growth in emerging markets," noted Ilene Gordon, president and CEO, Alcan Packaging. Currently ranked 14th in the world in terms of scale, Alcan's position is expected to triple over the next decade.

Expansion & Growth
Representing another facet of the company's dedication to meet the needs of its customers in the growing pharmaceutical market, Alcan Packaging Pharma Center (APPC), a business unit of Alcan Global Pharmaceutical Packaging, completed an 80,000 square-foot addition to its 70,000 square-foot facility in Shelbyville, Kentucky in 2008. It is the only facility in North America dedicated to flexible packaging materials for the pharmaceutical industry.
      The site is part of an extensive Alcan network of 17 pharmaceutical and medical plants that manufacture packaging for pharmaceuticals around the world. The other pharmaceutical sites that comprise Alcan Global Pharmaceutical Packaging serve the flexible medical device market (4), the glass tubing market for vials and ampoules (12), contract packaging (1), specialty cartons (1), and plastic bottles, caps and closures (5).
      The expansion represents a $27.5 million investment. This is a portion of an overall investment by the company of over $135 million during the last three years to upgrade and purchase new equipment, infrastructure and optimize facilities to create centers of excellence for the pharmaceutical industry.
      "This investment demonstrates Alcan's ongoing effort to anticipate its customers' expanding needs and to deliver the highest value added products and services," said Michael Rubenstein, Chief Growth and Innovation Office, Alcan Packaging. "This expansion will provide additional capacity that will meet the projected growth in the North American pharmaceutical packaging industry over the coming years."

Inside the New Facility
The new facility in Kentucky now houses three laminators (900 mm, 1270 mm, 1270 mm); three rotogravure presses (925 mm, eight-color Rotomec from Bobst; 720 mm, four-color Rotomec from Bobst; and a new 1250 mm, eight-color Acom; four slitters, two doctor machines; two prototyping blister machines; quality control (QC) labs; a cure room, maintenance area, finishing room, packaging area and warehouse. Each of the machines has a six-sided kiosk, which is used to track EHS, quality, actual performance against goals, maintenance and other key indicators on a daily basis.
      The QC pharma laboratory is fully equipped for testing with such instrumentation as an infrared scanner, gas chromatographs, tensile testers, COF testers, optical densitomers and decoder/analyzers. The temperature and humidity controlled lab is maintained at TAPPI (Technical Association of Pulp and Paper Industries) conditions, and the new warehouse facility is also temperature and humidity controlled.
      Two of the laminators have the ability to run a maximum of 50 inches for either coating or laminating. Several web paths are used including: Prime-Heat seal coat, laminate-laminate, overlacquer-heat seal coat, etc. The plant specializes in gravure printing with solvent-based inks and seven different ink systems on a variety of substrates including foils, films, papers and laminates.
      The product portfolio supplied by Alcan Packaging Pharma Center is particularly specialized and includes numerous patented products and other in-house developments. These include FORMPACK blister invented by Alcan Packaging for protection against moisture, oxygen and light for individual doses of pharmaceutical products (such as tablets, caplets and gel-caps), medical devices and diagnostics. The facility registers prints on both sides of the substrate and offers N'CRYPT anti-counterfeit solutions for security features such as Taggant, color shift coatings, fine line printing and micro-test.
      The new facility also incorporates a smart label system -- a bar-code based scanning system used for incoming material (master rolls) and tagging/labeling outgoing slit rolls. It is also used to build pallets with the slit rolls in the system.
      "It is a more accurate way of building pallets/tallies as it will ensure we do not mix copy, duplicate slit rolls or add scrap/rewind rolls to skids," said Ben Ball, Finishing Manager at the APPC.
      Always a leader in supplying flexible packaging to the pharmaceutical industry, Alcan Global Pharmaceutical Packaging is continuing to anticipate the needs of its customers. Both the acquisition of the Chakan flexible packaging plant and the expansion of the Kentucky facility are representative of the company's ongoing dedication to its customers and its commitment to meet the growing demand of the pharmaceutical industry with value-added products and services.

www.alcanpackaging.com

Wed Oct 29 22:37:00 CDT 2008