ITCM exhibited along with 65 other companies.  Simon Strothers, ITCM director, commented “It was great to meet new contacts in this sector and catch up with some current customers.  Conferences like DDL20 are a good opportunity to gain insight into current trends and emerging treatments, and new technologies and devices.  Helping customers to develop and launch these new products is where ITCM really adds value.”

The specialist conference and exhibition is one of the longest running of its type in the inhalation sector.  There is an increasing number of inhalation focussed events appearing in the calendar and DDL20 strives to be at the forefront with unique offerings and content.

The content this year was particularly interesting as speakers shared best scientific and regulatory practice and exhibiting companies showcased the latest innovations.  What makes DDL so well respected, and has kept it running for the last 20 years, is its ability to pull together key opinion leaders and leading scientists in a bid to share and develop knowledge in this specialist sector.   The conference covered past developments and future projections for the sector, approaches to improve cost effectiveness and new innovations for inhalation.

Bruce Paxton, Managing Director of ITCM accepts Award for Innovation from Lucy Watkins, MedilinkWM.

A world leader in custom machinery and product solutions for packaging and processing, ITCM, has won the prestigious Award for Innovation at the highly competitive West Midlands Medical and Healthcare Business Awards 2010.

Organised by medical technology industry specialist MedilinkWM, the awards shine the spotlight on the success of companies within the Medical Technologies Cluster, supported by Advantage West Midlands, and ITCM will now go on to represent the region on the national stage at the Medilink UK Awards in March.

ITCM’s new high-speed enveloping machine is revolutionising the packaging of pharmaceutical strip based products and other similar medical products, reducing the cost, time, noise and environmental impact of the packaging process. Already delivering success with initial installation, the technology allows for flexibility in product count with rapid changeover between products.

Simon Strothers, ITCM Director, commented: “We’re thrilled to win this prestigious award in such a competitive category. Innovation is essential to the continued growth and development of our business, and our team of highly experienced engineers consistently enable major leaps forward in factory productivity that not only benefit the manufacturer, but also the end-user. The new enveloper has the potential to be used across many sectors and for any products where enveloping forms part of the packaging or protection solution, and its use of paper rather than plastics make it a very sustainable option.”

MedilinkWM’s CEO, Tony Davis, added: “West Midlands companies have seen the real commercial benefits of trading within the Medical Technologies market in the last year, which has nurtured innovation, new product development, international sales growth and thriving start-ups. These awards are dedicated to businesses that have achieved exceptional research, innovation, business success, entrepreneurial flair and growth in the sector and the bar has been raised yet again, so it’s an amazing achievement to win.”

The new, fully automated machine by ITCM, erects and fills VCP’s new ‘Design Box‘, which is according to VCP, the first industrially produced Eco-friendly presentation box.  The box comprises an inner drawer which holds the champagne bottle and an outer sleeve which completes the packaging solution.

The ITCM custom designed and built machinery transforms a large and complex flat blank into the inner drawer using a series of intricate folds and tucks, after which it is loaded with a bottle before being loaded into the outer sleeve, erected separately on a side load cartoner from Langenpac, a sister company of ITCM and part of the Molins Plc group of companies.

Visit Packaging World to read the full article.  Also, watch this space for further information!

Intellectual Property (IP) is now widely recognised as a key to business success and a route to gaining competitive edge.  IP is any form of original creation or invention that can be purchased or sold – in this case, manufacturing and packaging processes.  Patents are widely known as intellectual property however there are many other types for example trade marks, designs and copyright, and all of these can help your business to make an impact within its sector.

The paper, Intellectual property and innovation, discusses key processes to gaining and maintaining market share.  Written by journalist Mark Fletcher, the article focuses on the pharmaceutical packaging machinery market; however any sector can benefit from the processes identified in the paper to strengthen and expand a company’s market share. In the paper, Fletcher outlines the benefits of introducing IP not just into the products themselves as is typically done, but through the entire project;

“In many cases, IP introduced into the manufac­turing process by savvy technical personnel can al­so add a new level of ‘protection’ to the brand or drug – creating additional barriers that the com­petition will find harder to breach if they want to develop ‘me too’ products.”

‘Me too’ products are products which follow on from the success of a novel product once a patent has expired.  These kinds of products are lower risk, have smaller R&D costs and don’t need the same level of publicity or marketing that the original product did as the market is already there. Ultimately, this means that they can sell the products at lower margins and the original product struggles to compete.

Typically companies turn to new product development to maintain competitive edge, either by introducing brand new products or making a variation to an old popular seller, this, as Fletcher explains, becomes a self repeating cycle which does not have to be the case;

“New IP generation is not just restricted to the beginning of a project; managers should also consider how they can compete with lower-cost competitors when a patent expires.”

The paper details how this could be achieved for example, through new packaging, improved design for manufacture, more efficient manufacturing procedure or flexibility in the manufacturing process, creating additional revenue that may not have existed at the start of the products life.

To view the full article, click here:   A paper on IP in Pharmaceutical Packaging Machinery

Recognised as one of the premier international meetings for this subject area, RDD gives an in-depth insight into what is currently happening in this niche of the pharmaceutical sector, including the latest trends and developments in inhaler technology and device design, handling and manufacturing, and old and new therapeutic findings. Respiratory Drug Delivery is an annual meeting, alternating between Europe and the US, and is designed for industrial scientists and academics interested in the development, preparation and delivery of therapeutic entities by aerosol systems.

ITCM will be in attendance throughout the event and will be available to discuss any new product design or development challenges, packaging innovations, or specialist machinery requirements that you may have. If you are by any chance visiting, please do stop by. Alternatively, if you would like to make an appointment to visit us at the show at a particular time, please get in touch before hand to arrange this.

For more information please visit www.rddonline.org

Strothers spoke as part of a group of seminars given on improving operational efficiency and his talk concentrated on the role of technology in operational efficiency.

The seminar covered current trends and challenges faced, and how technology can help to overcome these. The new product development lifecycle was outlined and ideas for improving operational efficiency, across all areas of a products lifecycle discussed using relevant case studies. The talk also covered designing for flexibility and radical improvements which can be made to increase operational efficiency on existing lines.

The seminar was very well attended and ITCM would like to thank those who attended the ITCM presentation for their participation. For those who were unable to attend but would like to learn more about technology in operational efficiency, please click on the following link to view the presentation: The role of technology in operational efficiency.

If you have any questions regarding this or how we may be able to assist you to improve operational efficiency in any of your upcoming or existing lines, please free to contact us.

The CCNSG (Client/Contractor National Safety Group) Safety Passport Scheme is a nationally recognised 2-day in-house training course provided by an approved training provider. The scheme is well established, first proposed in 1991 as a means of meeting health and safety at work obligations in industries such as steel and power, the similarities between industries were soon realised and a general course emerged covering basic health and safety in the work place. The scheme is monitored and controlled by CCNSG who ensure standards are maintained and that training program content meets current safety legislation and practices.

The aim of the scheme is to ensure basic knowledge of health and safety for all site personnel, enabling them, after appropriate site induction, to work more safely with lower risk to themselves and others. On completing the training and successfully passing the assessment, a ‘passport’ valid for 3 years is provided indicating a basic level has been achieved. The training covers a range of general health and safety issues and has also been tailored to focus on areas faced by our employees on a regular basis, covering topics from safe lifting and manual handling, to electricity, noise and safe systems of work.

A scheme like this has many benefits, both for the individual personally, increasing knowledge and awareness, but also for ITCM and our customers, who are safe in the knowledge that both whilst on site and working at customers facilities, our employees have the knowledge to make their working environment safe and to recognise potential hazards.

For further information about the safety passport scheme visit the CCNSG Website.

ITCM has a close relationship with the University of Bath, one of the top UK universities for engineering disciplines. Each year we recruit a number of undergraduates for engineering student placements, which are 12-month work assignments in which they gain valuable experience in the industry.

Recruiting top engineers is challenging, therefore we are very keen to nurture and encourage engineering talent from the earliest possible stage. We are now seeing success in engineers returning to ITCM for full-time employment after completing their studies.

We have recently said farewell to the Summer 2007 intake of students and have welcomed the Summer 2008 intake of new students, who we are sure will flourish over the next 12 months and will hopefully become top engineers in the future!

ITCM are also pleased to be sponsoring a number of academic prizes at the University of Bath, including an award for the 1st Year combined Electrical and Mechanical Engineering course, and an award for 2nd year students on Bath University’s renowned Mechanical Engineering MEng Course.