Inhaler process optimisation

How to optimse the production process for pressure compensated cartridges used in inhaler devices?

Background

The Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) group is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, which has focused on researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing new medications of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.

The Respimat® Soft Mist™ Inhaler is a next-generation inhaler that generates a slow-moving soft mist which is easy to inhale and delivers the drug effectively and reliably into the lungs of patients with asthma or other pulmonary diseases. It is mechanically driven and therefore does not rely on harmful aerosol propellants for atomization. The medication is stored and introduced into the inhaler via a cartridge which consists of a plastic container enclosed in an aluminum shell.

Challenge

The plastic container is blown inline from two materials produced in a co-extrusion blow molding technique.

After the extrusion process, the very thin inside layer has to be detached from the stiffer outside layer without damage, so as to guarantee pressure compensation during use.

Solution

In several development steps and in collaboration with the team at Boehringer Ingelheim, we went from the concept generation through process-development, mechanical design and pre-testing to finally perform test runs on the production line.

We were able to prove the efficacy of this innovative new process by separating the two layers and so ensure the correct operation of the device. This procedure is known as CCO (cut, crack, open).

Results

The process has proved very successful in real-world deployment, and in fact in 2014 Boehringer Ingelheim invested more than €100 million at its Dortmund site to expand production capacity for the Respimat inhaler to 44 million units per year.

Jörg Spreizer

Head of Engineering, Boehringer Ingelheim

"Social responsibility is an important element of the corporate culture at Boehringer Ingelheim, which we could experience in an intensive collaboration with Creaholic and during several projects since 1999."

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