Form-Fill-Seal System

Technical Details

Normal blisters are pre-formed on dedicated tooling, and are intended to suit a specific, pre-defined product shape. The difficulty comes where it is desired to seal a range of different product sizes or configurations into the same blister, as complex geometry is required to properly restrain the product within the blisters. This complexity reduces flexibility and increases the development lead time and project cost. As an example, adding an additional product configuration would usually mean the blister forming tool must be re-worked and often re-validated.

As a new alternative, the FFS system involves using standard pre-formed blisters with a fixed sealing profile, and changing only the internal geometry as necessary to hold the product. The pre-formed blank blister is placed over the FFS forming tool, and during the cycle the internal geometry is formed by using either low-cost ‘tool inserts’, or the product itself, as a mould.

This technique allows for much greater flexibility and much shorter development lead times. Using the previous example, (and depending on the setup used) adding an additional product configuration to an existing FFS packaging solution may involve no change to the process at all, or at worst making a new tool insert at a fraction of the cost and lead time of a full forming tool.

The Medipack FFS machine uses the same fully-validatable platform as the Medipacker TS series of heat sealing machines, ensuring the forming process is reliable and reproducible.

Sabre Medical carries a growing range of pre-validated FFS solutions, and can work with your project requirements to provide the right solution for your product.