Glass ampoules

Tender description

The Centre for Biological Reference Material (CBRM) have a need for a filling machine to fill small numbers <2 000 of 5ml and 2,5 ml ampoules and 5ml screw cap vials, with low product losses, covering a range of fill volumes from 0,2ml to 2ml, with CV's of 0,25-1 %. It should be capable of processing 2 000 x 2ml fills in an 8 hour working day including set up and clean down. The ability to fill a wider range of containers is desirable but not essential, as is the ability to fill volumes <0,2ml. CBRM are requested to carry out fills of 250-1 000 units into glass ampoules and for a range of fill volumes. The frequency of these requests is not high but some scientists believe that the need will increase. The large fully automated filling machines in CBRM involve long lengths of tubing making the product losses unacceptable when it is in short supply. They also take some initial priming and adjusting to obtain the desired fill weights which can also lead to losses of product. For freeze drying the stoppers have to be partially inserted into the ampoule/vial but it is not expected that a small filling machine could perform this action. Similarly it is assumed that the sealing of ampoules would take place on the fully automated machine which has already been used down to 100 ampoule batch sizes. Capping of vials could be manual or use the automated machine.