Baltimore Innovations Ltd. has showcased its new proprietary 'Moisture Budget' technical service - a highly detailed evaluation of humidity and desiccant behaviour within a product's protective packaging. The analysis carried out is based on sophisticated computer models developed by the company's R&D Director, Dr. Mark Valentine.
Ostensibly for the pharmaceutical industry, the service is also useful for those firms marketing crossover items, such as nutricosmetics and nutraceuticals.
The wide range of products supplied by Baltimore Innovations are primarily used for the protection of pharmaceuticals, vitamins, health products, as well as large-scale 'work in progress' containers - anywhere that a product requires protection from pharmalogical decomposition, medical assay degradation, electrical circuit corrosion or any other form of moisture damage.
This latest 'Moisture Budget' predictive modelling service is provided to customers of Baltimore Innovations at no extra cost. It helps companies which supply medical devices and pharmaceuticals to optimise existing desiccant packaging specifications, or to develop ultra-reliable packaging solutions with predicable humidity ranges; the mathematical model significantly improves accuracy in desiccant specification, to a high confidence level in the shelf-life and storage performance of a packaging system whatever the environment and climatic conditions. Dr Valentine explains:
The major advantage of our system is that customers can get an in-depth mathematical analysis of their moisture loading and desiccant requirements, tailored for specific atmospheric conditions from tropical to temperate. This ensures that the correct packaging and amount of desiccant materials are used to safeguard product stability.
By obtaining a full understanding of their products' thermo-fluidic environment, clients can achieve both the optimal quantity and ideal placement of desiccant within packaging. This helps to maintain the ideal humidity, and ensures stated shelf-life and storage requirements.
Using Baltimore Innovations' Moisture Budget Service offers significant benefits to companies, especially smaller companies (SMEs) who often don't have in-house packaging expertise. These benefits include:
According to Baltimore Innovations' Sales Director, Saul Edwards:
A leading medical device supplier achieved major annual savings in packaging and global transport costs after using the Moisture Budget packaging analysis service, which enabled a 10% increase in the number of devices packed in existing cardboard over-cartons.
An added benefit for many companies, from new start-ups to established blue chip medical device and pharma product suppliers, is that new products can be launched much faster with the correct packaging specification by drawing on Baltimore Innovations' technical expertise and knowledge about moisture control, desiccants and packaging.
A range of automated packaging systems are also supplied by Baltimore Innovations, which add desiccants to high-speed production lines; the desiccant dispensing machine can insert silica gel or molecular sieve sachets directly into pharmaceutical bottles, or place the desiccants onto diagnostic medical devices as they are packaged into protective film pouches using flow-wrapping systems. The automated packaging system includes a desiccant label applicator for high-speed lines, which heat-stakes desiccant-plastics directly onto the film used to package the customer's medical device or pharmaceutical preparation.
