Design and Development of Cost Effective and Portable Blister Packing Machine

Abstract

Blister Packing is a packaging technique in which plastic (PVC Shell) covering the product to be packed is fused to the cardboard. This equipment is widely used in variety of sectors including pharmaceutical, electronic and hardware industries. Despite having huge applicability in packaging domain, these machines are not affordable for small business setup. The goal of this project is to create portable, cost effective and fundamental blister packing machine which meets local market requirements. Moreover, its manufacturing should be simple and purely based on local materials so that any fault during operations can be recovered by operator using local spares. The concept is based on reverse engineering to develop manual blister packing machine. Blister Packaging of any product by this machine involves several processes. Placing a wooden or metal mold under the heating element before adding the shell to the mold is the foremost step. The product to be packed is placed within the shell and shell is covered with laminated cardboard or boxboard placed on top of the mold. This machine uses heat to create a seal between the PVC shell and the cardboard backing. The thickness of PVC Sheet and its type is taken into consideration while adjusting heating element's temperature. The temperature is kept slightly higher than the point at which sheets softens. Transmission of heat starts upon manual pressing of hand lever. Lever is designed in such a way that it applies regular pressure for uniform distribution of heat with the use of an average person's hand power. In last, hand lever is depressed, and product is allowed to be cooled at room temperature for a short interval to finally pack the requisite product.