What is the Sterile Barrier System?

In protective packaging, protective measures are created to prevent damage to the so-called sterile barrier system while not in use up to the time that it’s needed.

The term “sterile barrier system” refers to the minimum packaging that prevents proliferation of microorganisms and sterilizing the product to prepare it when it’s time for use. This is where medical pouch sealers play an important role in ensuring that a medical device is safe and sterilized while its not being used.

No matter how strict your process of sterilization and disinfection is, you can still have the risk of contaminating your product. This can happen when your packaging and seal closure system is compromised during shipment and storage and could cause serious danger to the user.

The product may be considered a complete sterile barrier system only when it has passed a complete testing protocol and the manufacturer has applied the final seal. This is the only time that the entire packaging system can be considered compliant as per ISO 11607.

Why are medical pouch sealers important?

Today, some difficulties that have been encountered by employees in the medical packaging industry for a long time have become serious that need an immediate solution. They often require high production output from a high-speed sealer that can provide reliable productivity. With the increasing regulatory requirements being handled by medical companies, the kind of sealer that they require must meet medical standards.

Even the most sophisticated medical device can be subject to great danger where there are surface contaminants.Medical packaging has the duty to preserve sterility for devices used so that they are contaminant free at the time that they will be used. In essence, sealers protect patients, caregivers and companies worldwide from contamination.

Features of medical pouch sealers

  • They are usually designed ruggedly for heavy workloads in multiple work shifting.
  • They have the capability to produce good quality watertight seals in different materials at 200 degrees F to 650 degrees F.
  • Typical medical pouch sealers are equipped with a medical control system that is temperature-based. This allows you to choose your desired temperature to produce consistent seals, which you can validate and calibrate to suit your needs.
  • These sealers have a built in alarm system that aborts the cycle being used if the seal temperature goes out of a preset range.

Are medical pouch sealers cost effective?

The traditional way of having one sealer for each operator is expensive for a medical company. So, the best thing to do is to install a line bar sealer to be used by each operator. This is more cost effective than using individual sealers. It’s just a matter of configuring your workstations to have only one sealer used by several workstations working efficiently. This way, you can save in cost of buying several machines, and you can also save in calibration and maintenance costs.

Moreover, a continuous sealer that has the ability to monitor all the parameters that your operators require, and can seal your packaging requirements for a day in just a few minutes is much more efficient compared to the expensive sealer that is usually used by a workstation operator.

On the other hand, if you think that a cheap sealer is really inexpensive compared to medical pouch sealers, you may be wrong. If you analyze the cost of a cheap sealer based on some factors such as time, downtime and replacement of parts, you’ll discover that it’s not really inexpensive.

Considering that today’s audits have become very extensive, you have to make sure that your medical pouch sealers will meet all your requirements.

How to choose the right medical packaging company

  • The product and service that the company offers should be well maintained.
  • The product that it carries must be reliable and extraordinary that meets strict codes.
  • The company should provide trained experts who fully understand the technical aspects of their machinery, and possess a solid foundation of knowing the regulatory process that they are responsible with.
  • Estimate and test the efficiency of the product that they offer as well as the on-time delivery to avoid delays when you need it.

Technical and production people in the medical and manufacturing industries know that quality of the product is foremost in choosing the right medical pouch sealers. If you’re interested to get a cost effective sealer that can meet your target and work standards, you can search online.