Pharmaceutical packaging is an indispensable part of pharmaceuticals. It not only contains the medicine but also plays a crucial role in protecting its quality, ensuring medication safety, and facilitating patient use. What are the common pharmaceutical packaging materials?
PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is commonly used as the substrate for blister packs in pharmaceutical packaging. It's the main material for the transparent "cells" containing the medicine in the packaging we usually see.
In terms of properties, PVC has excellent transparency, allowing consumers to clearly see the appearance, shape, and color of the medicine, facilitating verification of information and timely detection of any damage or spoilage. PVC also has good processability, easily forming blister packs of various sizes to meet diverse pharmaceutical packaging needs.
Furthermore, PVC is relatively inexpensive, effectively controlling packaging costs while maintaining basic packaging functions, which is one of the important reasons for its widespread use in pharmaceutical packaging.
However, PVC also has some limitations. Its barrier properties are relatively poor, especially its ability to block water vapor and oxygen. This means that if a medicine has high requirements for moisture and oxidation prevention, simply using PVC blister packaging may not meet the needs of long-term storage. Therefore, in practical applications, PVC often needs to be used in combination with other materials with excellent barrier properties to better protect the medicine.
In terms of application scenarios, PVC is commonly used to package solid oral preparations such as tablets and capsules. For example, many common cold medicines and vitamin tablets use a combination of PVC foil for blister packaging. This packaging method not only provides a certain degree of protection for the medicine but also allows for single-dose packaging, making it convenient for patients to carry and take, while also preventing contamination during use.
PTP aluminum foil, short for pharmaceutical blister packaging aluminum foil, is an important packaging material used in conjunction with PVC blister packaging. Its main function is to block external environmental factors and protect the medicine.
The biggest advantage of PTP blister foil lies in its excellent barrier properties. It effectively blocks oxygen, water vapor, light, and odors, creating a stable, dry, and light-protected storage environment for medicines. This prevents medicines from deteriorating or becoming ineffective due to moisture, oxidation, or light exposure, ensuring the quality and efficacy of the medicines within their expiration date.
In addition to its excellent barrier properties, PTP aluminum foil also has good puncture resistance and sealing properties. During the medicine packaging process, PTP aluminum foil needs to be tightly bonded to PVC blister packs through a heat-sealing process to form a sealed packaging unit.
Its good sealing properties ensure that the medicine inside the package is not invaded by external microorganisms, dust, or other contaminants, while its puncture resistance prevents the aluminum foil from being damaged by accidental punctures during packaging, transportation, and use, thus affecting the barrier effect of the packaging.
In addition, PTP aluminum foil can be printed on its surface, clearly displaying important information such as the drug's name, specifications, manufacturer, production date, and expiration date. This facilitates consumer identification and understanding of the drug and also aids in drug traceability management.
In application, the combination of PTP aluminum foil and PVC is one of the most common packaging forms for solid oral dosage forms, widely used in the packaging of tablets, capsules, and granules.
Compared to the combination of PVC and PTP aluminum foil, alu alu foil packaging offers stronger barrier properties and higher safety for pharmaceuticals. It is typically composed of two or more layers of aluminum foil and is mainly used for packaging drugs with extremely stringent storage requirements.
The most significant characteristic of alu alu bottom foil is its exceptional barrier performance. Due to its all-aluminum structure, its barrier capabilities against oxygen, water vapor, light, and odors are far superior to the combination of PVC and PTP aluminum foil, maximizing the protection of the drug from external environmental influences and providing comprehensive protection.
For some medications that are hygroscopic, easily oxidized, extremely sensitive to light, or volatile and prone to reacting with external factors, such as certain biological agents, hormones, and high-end antibiotics, aluminum foil packaging is an ideal choice. It effectively extends the shelf life of the medication and ensures its quality stability during storage and transportation.
Simultaneously, aluminum foil offers excellent sealing and safety. Its sealing performance ensures a completely oxygen-free and dry environment inside the packaging, preventing microbial contamination of the medication.
Furthermore, the stable material of aluminum foil does not chemically react with the medication or release harmful substances, ensuring the safety and purity of the medication and giving patients greater peace of mind.