The mission of the UK-based Matcon company is simple: To eliminate its customers' tough, costly issues with materials handling, recipe formulation, mixing, blending and packing by providing robust formulation and blending solutions. Thanks to precise weighing, Matcon’s traceable batch formulation solutions can mix anything from a few kilograms up to 700 kilograms without cross-contamination risk.
This lets Matcon's customers formulate, blend and pack dry ingredients for the pharmaceutical industry. These ingredients include important dry active pharmaceutical substances, additives, binders and flavors-products that require precisely mixed, often small concentrations. Ingredient-mixing solutions must prevent cross contamination while tracking and tracing batch ingredients and formulation and provide production flexibility.
Verifiable Dose Accuracy
The company supplies a recipe-formulation system that provides automatic dosing for multitudes of ingredients, whether they are used in micro, minor or major quantities. This so-called Flexi-Batch® Formulation System typically doses up to 5 batches per hour, but it can achieve as many as 15 using a different configuration.
Precise dosing is achieved with high-precision METTLER TOLEDO weighing platforms. These highly accurate and versatile scale mean that only one weighing system has to be installed in each batching station, regardless of whether a few kilograms or the unit’s max of 700 kilograms are being handled. This means they take the place of multiple scales that were previously required to handle diverse weight additions.
"These high-precision scales are the perfect solution for precise, hygienic batching," says Matcon group sales director Hans Petterson. "The weighing system verifies that the dosing process is done correctly and provides a record of additions."
Before applying this system, Patterson says there were more opportunities for errors. "Our customers would have hand-fed ingredients using a lot of different bags," he explains. This exposed their customers’ processes to many errors which could be devastating.
Global Service a Plus
In addition to accuracy and traceability, METTLER TOLEDO's global service network is a draw for Matcon. If a system fails for any reason, the cost in terms of lost productivity can be enormous. "We need that equipment back in operation within minutes or hours," says Petterson. "We trust that wherever we supply our products, there is always local weighing-equipment support available."
The system's flexibility is also a major benefit. "It offers us versatility, as a very wide weight range can be accurately dosed with the same system. It is flexible, allowing the weighing system to move with the dosing device," Pettersson concludes.
Find more knowledge resources in METTLER TOLEDO Library
