Packaging processor Greiner adds cleanroom

In a move it hopes will help it grow its business in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics packaging segment, plastics packaging processor Greiner Packaging Intl. (Kremsmünster, Austria) has installed a 205 sq.m., Class ISO 8 (Class 100,000) cleanroom at its facility in Rastatt, Germany.

If required, says Greiner, the new cleanroom can be upgraded to class ISO 7 within just a few days.

The Rastatt facility has for decades been one of the company's leading sites for processing of multi-layer packaging with gas barrier. The new cleanroom at Rastatt - including cleanroom class qualification - was built in around 20 weeks. The staff already has been qualified for cleanroom work. The injection molding machinery is located outside of the cleanroom. Conveyor belts transport the containers through adjustable wall openings into the cleanroom using laminar flow (low-turbulent displacement flow).

Visual control is performed on packing tables. The containers are placed in cleanroom bags and are then vacuum sealed. Through a wall opening, which is opened and closed using a high-speed gate, they are transported into the material lock for final packing.

The production facility at Rastatt was certified to ISO 9001 standard in the early 1990s. In addition, it has been approved by the BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin, in terms of the production of heavy-duty containers (UN bottles). Greiner is aiming in the mid-term to also obtain GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) DIN ISO 15378:2006 certification for its cleanroom processing.

Greiner Packaging International in 2010 had annual sales of €403 million, about 35% of the Greiner Group's total sales.