Precise Print Definition and Accurate Colour Representation for Pharmaceuticals

By Tom Kerchiss, RK Print Coat Instruments

Packaging for pharmaceutical products, whether prescribed, dispensed in health care centres or hospitals or self selected by consumers and bought over the counter (OTC) is regarded as a precise and specialized segment of business, subject to legislation, process accreditation and scrutiny by government agencies and various watchdog committees.’  

Pharmaceutical packaging is generally differentiated into primary packaging, secondary packaging and tertiary. Primary can best be defined as an internal envelope, an inert structure that encloses, protects and holds an item in place: i.e., blister and plastic foil strip.

Secondary packaging, for instance: printed paperboard, cartons and boxes is subject to a wide range of printing and converting processes. This type of packaging fulfils a number of roles including, merchandising, display, protection and containment.  The third category of packaging is tertiary and is associated with handling, storage and distribution of products in large volume from place to place, sometimes from country to country.

Secondary packaging is important for many reasons. It provides a canvas for marketers and product manufacturers to display information on the product including dosage and what the product is meant to treat, etc.
 Secondary packaging safely contains and protects an item contained within, which may be a device or more often than not is a bottle or container or a plastic or foil strip of tablets (the primary packaging). Barcode and other information integrated in with and on the secondary pack assist with stock control and other track and trace processes.

Pharmaceutical production and packaging can be both exacting and a challenge that often requires discipline and attention to detail. Label printers and converters have to satisfy a wide range of quality and health and safety requirements. Security is of importance; many techniques and technology are employed in order to tackle problems such as counterfeiting and tampering. Cleanliness, health and safety are also of concern as too is package print presentation and the functionality and integrity of the materials and consumables used.  Whether it’s a label printer or package printer and converter there is a fundamental need to ensure precise definition of printed text and accurate presentation of colour, graphical content and so forth.

Labels destined to be affixed to containers or cartons must present a unified front.  Poorly designed labels, labels that are not clear with regard to instructions such as dosage cause problems not only for consumers but also for health care professionals. Text should appear in a point size that is sensible and readable given that eyesight deteriorates with age. Grammar, punctuation and language should not be ambiguous. In pharmaceutical label printing and in packaging converting in general it is of paramount importance that print is clear and totally free of blemishes. A printed dot or hickey in the wrong spot may result in a tablet dose being misinterpreted.

Brand owners, marketers and designers need to give serious thought to product presentation and to whom the product is aimed. For many OTC products or items that a consumer may self select from the retail shelf in a health shop or well being aisle of a supermarket: products not officially regarded as being harmful: much effort is given over to presentation. Eye catching designs, bold use of graphics and text without hyperbole is generally judged acceptable or permissible.

For other products, for those items with a degree of risk, those prescriptive medicines; the behind the counter pharmacy product that are usually dispensed by a health care professional such as a chemist, etc., printing and packaging product presentation is approached differently.

Colour must be selected with care; colour contrast between the text and label background for instance must afford for optimum legibility of text. Colour or colours must not clash or obscure that legibility of the text. The use of high visibility logos, decorative bars or stripes and embossed or de-bossed decorative elements are generally discouraged because they draw attention away from possible important information and add to label and carton clutter. 

In some instances the label surface has become crowded as a result of the need to provide safety information and warnings, sometimes in several languages. This resulted in printed surfaces veering towards the unreadable, with information that could easily be overlooked. Printed leaflet labels, which have come on the scene in recent years, addresses this issue to some extent.

Colour plays an increasingly important role in the production and distribution of prescriptive medication. For instance, most pharmaceutical packs incorporate standard features such as the name of the drug as well as printed details such as dosage, etc.

Colour is often used for colour coding. Colour, signalling the particular strength of a medication and is regarded as a necessity particularly in cancer treatment. Colour coded packaging minimises the risk that a pharmacist, dispenser or other health care worker will issue the wrong dose. The fact that a pack of 25 mg Lenalidomide used to treat many blood and bone cancers has a striking blue background and the 15 mg version is printed in bright green is a reliable visual cue for dispenser and patient.   

Colour communication, proofing and quality control/product monitoring and R & D systems ease print processing difficulties and are available for major print processes including flexography and gravure.

Systems such as the FlexiProof for users and producers of flexo inks can be used for quality control; presentation purposes (proofs), research and development and for computer colour matching data, trialling and product development. Printers and converters, as well as consumable producers can ensure product feasibility and print quality consistency with the sample/proof regarded as a true visualization of the reproduction process.

The FlexiProof 100, FlexiProof UV and FlexoProof LED UV provide a high degree of flexibility and are sometimes used instead of a production press for trialling unfamiliar materials, inks, substrates, etc. Printability issues such as gloss, durability, scuff, chemical resistance can be determined. It is also possible to see how ink and substrates and other elements of processing and adding value perform and react over time.

For manuufacturers and for converter involved in using gravure or both gravure and flexo other devices developed by RK Print Coat Instruments have come on stream. The K Printing Proofer for instance is able to handle any flexible substrate including, films, boards, aluminium foils, PVC, etc, which may be printed or laminated. With this deviece high quality proofs using gravure, gravure-offset or flexo inks may be obtained in an instant. Furthermore, excellent printability is ensured with fine micrometer control (0.01mm) of impression and doctoring settings.

Another device is the K Gravure Coater. This incorporates a microprocessor- controlled servo-drive and employs the same electronically engraved printing plates that are used to great effect on the company’s revenue generating Printing Proofer system. 

In operation ink is transferred from an electronically engraved plate directly onto the substrate, which is attached to the rubber impression roller. Doctor blade and roller adjustments are made pneumatically and repeatable settings can be made for future tests.

RK Print Coat Instruments Ltd
Litlington, Royston, Hertfordshire SG8 0QZ 
www.rkprint.com sales@rkprint.com

Source: RK Print Coat Instruments Ltd