Depending on the supplier and application, infusion bags are made of various synthetics, such as polypropylene, EVA or PVC, often in multiple layers. The popularity of the infusion bag among doctors and nursing staff is easy to explain: handling is simple, infusion bags collapse completely when empty, the drip chamber cannot run dry and no venting is required. They can also be quickly adapted to pressurised infusion.
The infusion bag has made itself indispensable in medical care. But what are the key factors in producing and filling the bags?
Fabricating the infusion bag from a tubular film, and then filling and sealing it, call for the highest standards in precision, reproducibility and speed. Series KFFS machines from Kiefel, based in Freilassing, produce and fill as many as 6,000 infusion bags an hour. In the KFFS line, a single machine with various work stations takes care of producing, filling and sealing the bags.
The first step consists of creating the bag from a continuous tube of single or multilayer synthetic and sealing it by means of thermal-contact welding. In this process, the film is heated to its melting point and then crimped into the proper shape. Virtually no limits are imposed on the seam's configurations - regardless of whether the bag has one chamber or several. This process is employed wherever automated production of absolutely leakproof containers for liquids or gasses is concerned.
Kiefel fine-tunes production parameters and customised assembly with each client. In this way, infusion bags with infusion ports, injection ports and transfer cannula are washed or evacuated with nitrogen. Labelling and printing of the finished product is also part of the process.
Bag contents must always be of high quality. The Kiefel system precludes the risks and dangers of contamination during filling. The machine welds the bag, port and periphery in a single enclosure. A transport system tensions the film during the entire process so that weld quality and production speed are always in sync. Immediately after the welding process, the machine separates the individual bags and delivers them to the filling unit.
Bag capacities of 40-6,000ml are entirely feasible. The fully automated unit fills the infusion bags in seconds. Highly accurate mass flow meters, fill-level monitoring, measurement of residual oxygen content and the automatic closure of the infusion bag provides short production times with continuous quality control. It goes without saying that cleaning-in-place and sterilisation-inplace are available for the entire system.
In addition to the fully automated, integrated welding and filling systems, the company also offers self-contained filling or welding units. The advantages of the integrated solution include compact design, precise bag assembly through thermal-contact welding and extremely precise filling technology.
Kiefel develops and produces high-quality machines for processing plastic films, and its customers include well-known manufacturers from the automotive, medical engineering, appliance and packaging industries. Kiefel has a global presence thanks to its sales and service branches in the US, France, Netherlands, Russia, China, Brazil, Indonesia and India, as well as sales partners in more than 60 countries.
