One of Lanes key products is Quiet Life, a Herbal remedy designed for people seeking relief from periods of worry and stress and helping to promote natural sleep. In terms of manufacture, Quiet Life is an extremely abrasive product when being compressed, and has even caused severe wear on I Holland’s high wear resistant steel HPG-P (Holland PharmaGrade Premium) which has excellent abrasive and wear resistant properties. When using HPG-P on Quiet Life, 12 million tablets were produced before the tooling could no longer be used due to severe wear on the punch tips.
Following consultation with I Holland’s Research & Development Department it was recommended to try powder metallurgy punches (HPG-MP) along with the existing tungsten carbide dies. HPG-MP steel has both higher wear resistance and toughness properties than HPG-P and is recommended for use on particularly abrasive compounds. The transfer of Quiet Life to this tooling has resulted in product output increasing to 26 million tablets before any signs of wear – a massive 115% increase in tooling life!
According to Lanes, this far outweighs the costs of the additional capital investment in the tooling. The company is receiving excellent value for money in terms of optimising its investment in the production of this strategically important product. As well as reaping the benefits of excellent toughness and wear resistance, resulting in longer tooling life, Lanes also benefit from reduced press down-time and tooling replacement costs.
Lanes, is a leading UK family-owned pharmaceutical company that specialises in producing natural remedies and is famous for brands such as Olbas and Kalms. Market leading products like these demand the highest standards across the manufacturing process, so Lanes chose I Holland to meet their entire Tablet Tooling requirements.
The GR Lanes Manufacturing Manager says:
“I Holland have been instrumental in helping with damage prevention and improved tool life with various new products recently being introduced. I Holland have helped us to decide on which of the many diff errant grades of steel we should use for both punches and dies. I Holland’s expertise combined with their openness in communication resulted in outcomes that have reduced costs, downtime and led to increased yields and efficiencies. With ongoing talks and linked projects, Lanes are now confident I Holland can help with further technical solutions for our more established pharmaceutical products and look forward to a long and successful partnership.”
