Vials of COVID-19 vaccine are swirling off production lines with the critical help of Precision Polymer Engineering (PPE), which is providing specialized elastomer parts able to withstand the chemically harsh repeat cleaning cycles of the filling systems.
High-performance seals designed and manufactured by PPE are used by Bausch+Ströbel, a German company that manufactures pharmaceutical filling lines. Failure of any component in their pharmaceutical filling equipment would result in significant delays to COVID-19 vaccine production, so PPE’s specialized seals must be of the highest quality.Vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer using Bausch+Ströbel lines must regularly clean the filling systems with chemicals and steam, an aggressive combination that can break down lesser seals. The specified PPE elastomer seals are much more resilient to the conditions faced on these vaccine filling lines, therefore lasting longer, and enabling uninterrupted vaccine production.
Playing a part of the global vaccine rollout is a point of pride for the PPE team in Blackburn, England, where the workforce and surrounding community has been particularly hard hit by COVID-19. Posters hang on the walls reading, “The work you do is directly helping fight COVID-19. Thank you team!”
“We were proud to work on such a critical piece of equipment,” said Michael Hederich, Germany-based life science sealing specialist at Precision Polymer Engineering, with responsibility for the Bausch+Ströbel project. “The importance of this project meant that both product quality and on-time delivery had to be faultless, and I’m pleased we were able to achieve this for the Bausch+Ströbel team.”
PPE offered the ideal material grades to meet the Bausch+Ströbel specification – in this case, E70Q, S71U and S80U. The grades offered the required level of thermal and chemical resistance, mechanical strength and both FDA and USP Class VI certifications. PPE has been providing seals to Bausch+Ströbel since 2012, but never at a time more critical than this.
To find out more about Precision Polymer Engineering, and how their sealing expertise is supporting critical life science applications, visit http://www.prepol.com/industries/pharmaceutical-biomedical.
