Omega Design Corp. has partnered with Brazil-based packaging equipment provider Grupo Tecnor to introduce a jointly developed semi-automatic case packer with unit-level serialization capabilities to the North American market.
The ECX-001 Case Packer has been outfitted with best-in-class software, cameras, and printers integrated by Omega Design to meet the more stringent track-and-trace requirements mandated by the Drug Quality and Security Act, which became U.S. law in Nov. 2013.
By offering semi-automatic functionality, the ECX-001 Case Packer satisfies a desirable middle-ground in both case packing and serialization, according to the vendor.The machine is a simple, economical way to both increase production and eliminate hand-packing costs while avoiding the expensive and often time-consuming transition to fully automatic operations.
Featuring a heavy-duty welded tubular construction and including Allen-Bradley components with PLCs and HMI, the ECX-001 Case Packer offers simple operations through the serialization and packing cycle with maximum safety precautions—a must in semi-automatic operating scenarios.Product collation is accurate and controlled, and the machine also features a clear, compact design and instant emergency stop functions.Completed cases are automatically discharged onto a free roller table.
The ECX-001 is easy to use.Packaging personnel simply open an empty case and place it in the loading funnel, where it is held in place to receive individual units.Once the collated units are packed into the case, an integrated camera captures the codes of each individual item and associates them to their case label code in the serialization software.As this occurs, the operator can monitor the process on a nearby panel view—a double-check serving as a useful, manual quality control add-on.
![“Another key [UDI] benefit, because we're calling that product by the same name across the healthcare supply chain… rich and robust data that we can access around supply consumption and utilization rates. One of the buzz terms we've heard during the COVID-19 crisis was what's my burn rate? How fast am I going through gowns, masks, gloves?” – Mike Schiller, Senior Director at AHRMM](https://img.healthcarepackaging.com/files/base/pmmi/all/image/2020/08/UDI.5f4d326e41d53.png?auto=format&fit=crop&h=146&w=340)
