Many manufacturers in the medical device and pharmaceutical industry turn to Ottobeuren when searching for a solution to automate the packaging of large format pouches. There, Christ Packing Systems, a specialist in automating complex packaging processes, has developed an innovative solution for secondary pouch packaging. This case study describes a successful project for a U.S. company to automatically package pouches of neurovascular catheters into folding boxes. It shows how the transition from manual to fully automated packaging can be achieved, despite the particular challenges posed by the pouches’ large, flat size, and the sensitivity of the products they contain.

Christ Packing Systems’ customers often bring in a wide range of sensitive medical products in pouches – including catheters, implants, and syringes. The key question is always: can the packaging of these pouches be automated? As a specialist in automated secondary and end-of-line packaging, Christ Packing Systems first analyses the specific challenges of each product in order to develop a tailor-made solution.

Manual Packaging as a Competitive Disadvantage
“The products to be packaged are extremely delicate and subject to strict regulatory and country-specific requirements,” explains Janina Buß, Sales Manager at Christ Packing Systems. “As a result, many companies – even large corporations – consider certain packaging projects to be extremely difficult or even impossible to automate. For this reason, a sterilised catheter in a pouch is often packed manually to be on the safe side.”

However, this approach poses far reaching problems. During vacation periods, temporary workers are often brought in, leading to higher rejection rates. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the situation: disrupted supply chains and illness-related staff shortages forced many companies to rethink their strategies. “Even small and mid-sized companies with a manageable product portfolio and only few packaging lines are now considering automation,” says Buß. “The pandemic has shown that companies relying on manual packaging are particularly vulnerable to production and delivery downtime – a clear competitive disadvantage.”