Blister packaging has been widely used as a reliable form of packaging for products in a variety of industries. The advantages of blister packaging such as good barrier properties, low cost, and customisability make blister packaging one of the best options for pharmaceutical packaging. This article will provide you with a detailed guide to blister packaging to help you better understand it.

1.  What is blister packaging

Blister packaging is a method of packaging in which the product is enclosed between a forming film and a lid under specific temperature and pressure conditions. Blister packaging is usually made of plastic film, aluminum foil, cardboard, and composite materials.

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2.  Structure of blister packaging

A complete blister packaging is a combination of a forming film above and a lid below. The forming film is thermoformed or cold stamped to form the grooves in which the tablets are placed, with the aluminum foil lid below. The structure of blister packaging also includes a coating and an ink layer, and some blister packaging also has an additional layer of aluminum foil placed above the plastic forming film to enhance the barrier properties of the blister packaging.

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3.  Uses of blister packaging

Blister packaging is one of the main forms of pharmaceutical packaging and is often used to package tablets, capsules, suppositories, ampoules, syringes, and other pharmaceutical products. In addition, blister packaging can also be used for packaging cosmetics, food, and other products.

4.  Materials for blister packaging

The level of barrier properties of blister packaging depends on the material used to form a film. The choice of material for this part of the product must take into account not only the barrier properties but also the plasticity of the blister packaging, the ease of punching, and the compatibility of the blister packaging with the drug. The following are some of the materials commonly used to make blister packaging.

● PVC

PVC rigid sheet is a material with a low water vapor transmission rate, which has the advantages of good corrosion resistance, good plasticity, and good insulation. these characteristics and the low cost of PVC make it a popular choice for blister packaging.

● PVDC/PVC

PVDC is the most common coating in blister packaging, it can make the PVC blister packaging water and oxygen barrier performance increased by 5-10 times, with PVDC coating of PVC rigid sheet is also a common material to produce blister packaging.

● PP

The water vapor transmission rate of uncoated PP rigid sheets is lower than that of uncoated PVC rigid sheets. PP has the advantage of being easy to recycle and has good barrier properties, but it is not yet widely used for blister packaging due to its high hardness and difficulty in thermoforming.

● OPA/AL/PVC

OPA/AL/PVC laminate is one of the most common materials used in aluminum blister packaging. This material is extremely resistant to both water vapor and oxygen and is almost as effective as PVDC/PVC blister packaging with a 90gsm coating. However, the OPA/AL/PVC laminate is processed using cold forming, which results in more material being consumed in the production of blister packaging.

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5.  Advantages of blister packaging

● Excellent hermeticity

Blister packaging has excellent sealing capabilities. Depending on the packaging material, blister packaging can provide different levels of barrier to oxygen, water vapor, and UV light, thus ensuring that the stability of the drug is not affected.

● Unit dose packaging

Blister packaging allows the packaged product to be placed in several separate compartments to ensure that medicines do not contaminate each other. Blister packaging also secures the medicine in individual compartments to prevent breakage during transport.

● Good visibility

Blister packaging offers good transparency. The transparent side of blister packaging helps manufacturers to display their products visually and makes it easy for consumers to see the contents of the blister packaging.

● Customizable

As blister packaging is pressed or heated into shape using interchangeable molds, there are fewer restrictions on the size and shape of the product, which means that blister packaging can be adapted and customized to suit the user’s needs.

● Improving patient adherence to medication

Blister packaging allows multiple medications to be grouped in the same blister, and the separate packaging helps to prevent patients from mixing and misusing medications. The blister packaging can be printed with instructional text and the design of the blister packaging to sort medication can also help patients to take their medication more easily, thus improving compliance.

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6.  Considerations for pharmaceutical manufacturers choosing blister packaging

● Conforms to local pharmaceutical packaging standards

The blister packaging chosen by pharmaceutical manufacturers needs to comply with regulatory standards set by government agencies such as the FDA and the European Medicines Agency. Blister packaging that meets these standards can help manufacturers avoid costly compliance issues.

● Higher costs for small-scale packaging

Given the cost of purchasing blister packaging materials and blister packaging machines, the choice of blister packaging for small-scale pharmaceutical packaging production may be less cost-effective.

● Compatibility of materials with pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical manufacturers need to ensure that the materials used for blister packaging do not affect the stability of the drug during processing and that the materials used for blister packaging have the required barrier properties to provide reliable protection for the drug.

As one of the mainstream forms of packaging in the pharmaceutical industry, the reliability of blister packaging has been heavily tested, and the quality of blister packaging is closely related to blister packaging equipment.

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Hoping Machinery’s product range includes several self-developed high-performance blister packaging machines. Among them, the DPH320II intelligent high speed roller-plate blister packaging machine is suitable for packaging various solid preparations such as pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs, and its punching and cutting speed can reach up to 300 times/min.

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