Steriline, an Italian manufacturer of robotic and standard fill/finish lines for the aseptic processing of injectable drugs, delivered to FATRO an extremely compact robotic filling machine, to produce small batches of veterinary vaccines in single-dose pre-filled syringes (PFSs).
FATRO, founded in 1947 by the pharmacist and veterinarian Gualtiero Zaini and his son Corrado Zaini (a chemist), develops and produces medicines and vaccines for animals. Today, it is a flagship of the Italian Veterinary Pharmaceutical Industry, exporting its products to more than 90 countries according to an international expansion plan that adapts the strategies to the different local realities. In order to enter into the veterinary segment market that requires single-dose formats, FATRO decided to introduce into its fleet of machines a lean solution, equipped with only a few components, that processes small batches of single-dose PFSs. The machine was supposed to occupy as little space as possible, to reduce the management costs of the grade B area the equipment would have to be housed in.
Steriline’s robotic nest-filling machine
Steriline proposed an extremely compact and flexible filling solution: a Robotic Nest Filling Machine (RNFM2) designed to manage 0.5 ml PFSs with a production capacity of up to 2,900 pieces/hour. With two manual loading and unloading stations, where an operator inserts tubs previously peeled under a Laminar Air Flow, the stand-alone solution is equipped with a robotic arm that picks up the nest in the tub containing the empty PFSs and positions it under the two filling heads connected to peristaltic pumps. Simultaneously to the filling process, two stoppering heads seal the filled PFSs. Once both processes are completed, the robotic arm repositions the nest in the tub at the exit station, ready for the operator to withdraw and transfer to the secondary packaging process.
The whole process therefore requires a very small action area, which translates into the very limited machine footprint (1.250 m x 1.250 m) under the open Restricted Access Barrier System (oRABS).
Detail of Steriline’s robotic nest-filling machine
“We are very happy to have acquired this machine from a company we have been partners with for a decade. Thanks to the Robotic Nest Filling Machine, we can now satisfy market demands and be closer to our customers’ needs,” says Dr Francesco Meliota, FATRO Vice President.
The whole project, from the order to the product set-up, took one year. The Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) was completed in September 2022 without requiring any customer service intervention.
Filippo Parini, Area Sales Manager at Steriline, states: “I am happy that FATRO chose Steriline expertise and competences despite the many competitors in the Bologna area. Fatro was really satisfied with Steriline capabilities and technologies and invited us to propose our solutions for other applications. I am convinced that this is the beginning of an even stronger partnership.”
