Pharma & supplements

What this category asks of the film

Three properties decide the structure, and all three sit at maximum, because the pack is the only thing keeping the dose intact.

Holds air out

Maximum

Oxygen is what turns oil rancid and takes the colour and the potency out of a product. It is the slowest of the three and the one that decides a shelf life in months rather than weeks.

Holds damp out

Maximum

Damp is the fastest of the three to show. Water between the layers delaminates the film, and in Thai humidity a weak film can lose a product in a single wet season.

Holds light out

Maximum

Light bleaches pigment and breaks down vitamins, and a clear window lets it through as readily as an open doorway does. It is also the only barrier a buyer can see is missing.

Takes heat

xxxWe have not rated this one yet

A retort pouch is cooked with the food inside it, under pressure, above boiling point. A film that survives filling does not automatically survive the retort.

Takes a knock

xxxWe have not rated this one yet

Dry pet food and coffee beans have corners. So does a pallet on a lorry. Most failures in transit are one hole, not a whole seam.

Seals shut

xxxWe have not rated this one yet

Every barrier above this one is undone by a seal that opens. It is also the layer that has to close cleanly through spilled powder and oil on a filling line running at speed.

Prints true

xxxWe have not rated this one yet

The shelf is the only place most products meet a buyer. Gravure prints from an engraved copper cylinder, which is why the same brown holds across a run instead of drifting.

Goes back

xxxWe have not rated this one yet

A laminate of three different plastics cannot be recycled as any one of them. A mono-material structure can, and every year it reaches the same shelf life on more of the jobs.

Moisture — the failure you will meet. A hygroscopic powder cakes inside the sachet and stops pouring at the registered dose.

Oxygen — oxidation costs you assay at the end of shelf life, not at the start, which is where stability studies catch it.

Light — vitamins and actives break down behind a clear window as fast as in daylight.

Heat, puncture, seal, print and recycling are rated on the layer page.

Shapes that suit it

Two shapes carry almost all of this category.

• 3-Side Seal Pouch→ซองซีล 3 ด้านgram fill range1 g – 15 gOne web of film folded at the bottom and sealed on three edges. The fold leaves one clean face, which is where the dose, the batch number and the warning go.
• Roll Stock→ฟิล์มม้วนmm web widthxxx mmPrinted film on a reel for your own form-fill-seal line, so the sachet is formed, filled and sealed in one pass.

Stick packs and 4-side seal sachets run on the same films. Ask.

Structures a quote would start from

The structure is chosen with your product, your shelf life, your filling line and your registration file in the room.

• PET / NY / AL / RCPP

  • PETOuter face — takes the print and the knocks
  • NYToughness — takes the puncture and the drop, not the barrier
  • ALBarrier — real aluminium foil, the highest barrier there is
  • RCPPSealant — holds its seal at retort temperature
  Retort

  Nylon for puncture, a sealant that holds through 121 °C.

  Our plant builds this today.

  See this category on the formula sheet

• PET / AL / PE

  • PETOuter face — takes the print and the knocks
  • ALBarrier — real aluminium foil, the highest barrier there is
  • PESealant — melts to itself to close the pouch

  Print face, aluminium foil, sealant. Foil is the only layer that takes oxygen and moisture to effectively zero, which is why unit-dose pharma keeps coming back to it.

  Industry standard; we have not run it here yet.

  See this category on the formula sheet

The four figures asked first

Where production has signed a number, it is printed. Where it has not, the row stays blank — better a blank than a guess you would hold us to.

Lead time, first run

20 – 45days from the layout you signed at Step 3

Minimum order

xxx(metres of film, or pouches; we can quote either)

Colours in one pass

xxx

Size and seal tolerance

xxxmm

Can it keep moisture out, keep light out, hold a vacuum, take a retort?

Tell us what the pack has to survive and the film spec is built for it. That covers vacuum, and retort for a pouch that has to take pressure and heat and come out of a boiling or steaming cycle intact.

Can you run food and cosmetics work, and can you certify it?

Yes, for every industry — the line runs food-grade film from end to end. A certificate of analysis (COA) goes out with every production lot and every delivery.

What are you certified to?

ISO 9001:2015, GHPs, HACCP and BRC/IoP, all certified by BSI.

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