Customer Reference - Krauss-Maffei UK - a market leader in plastics processing technology -

Erich Pfeiffer GmbH, headquartered in Radolfzell, is one of a cluster of high-tech plastic sector companies in south-western Germany. Pfeiffer specializes in atomizers and mechanical pump dispensers for the pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industries. Pfeiffer ships to customers all over the world, with output of well over a billion parts per year. In 1998, around 650 employees – 530 of them in Germany – generated sales of DM 136 million.

High precision is near the top of the priority list for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics customers. End-users want dispensing systems that function easily and reliably, and in the case of pharmaceuticals deliver an exact drug dosage. Visual appearance also counts, especially for the cosmetics industry, where image is all-important. Where fashions change with unpredictable speed, cosmetics industry suppliers must be capable of fast and flexible reactions to the latest trend.

Practice makes perfect

Pfeiffer's mechanical pump systems are in great demand. Years of experience in design and manufacture enable the company to produce reliable systems that dispense precisely metered volumes of liquid. Perfume bottle atomizers in attractive designs and colours are a typical cosmetics application. The breakthrough on the pharmaceuticals side was a nasal spray dispenser system developed together with Thomae in 1970. In the intervening decades, Pfeiffer has committed substantial resources to product development for this sector, with the result that the company now makes roughly 70% of total sales with pharmaceutical products.

A culture of innovation

Innovation has always been a driving force in Pfeiffer's success. "It's not just our products that are innovative," says Ernst R. Buhr, Vice President responsible for operations at Pfeiffer. "Innovation has become an integral part of our company culture. It starts with our approach to design and product development and continues through manufacturing processes and engineering to our customer service.We listen carefully to our customers and we pride ourselves on our ability to find solutions for every problem. It's all part of our 'can-do' mentality."

A new market: by-dose nasal sprays

With the development of a new type of nasal spray and its launch in 1990, Pfeiffer created a whole new market. By-dose nasal sprays deliver a precise dosage of a drug which is absorbed via the mucous membrane in the nose. Because of its precision and reliability, this method of drug delivery can be used instead of an injection, for example, for pain relief in a migraine attack. Only an injection moulding machine and mould built for extreme precision are capable of manufacturing the dispenser system to the required tolerances. The nozzle aperture has a diameter of 0.25 mm and it must be absolutely flash-free.

Ergonomics and design flair

Ease of use was also part of the design brief for a special design for Pfeiffer's new Metropolitan range of pump dispensers for body lotions. Starting with one of their standard pump systems, Pfeiffer designers created a new dispenser head with better ergonomics. Among other improvements, it was easier to wipe excess lotion off cleanly. The only catch was that the new design was extremely thick walled and therefore trickier to make, because of the risk of sunk spots. Pfeiffer decided to use gas-assisted injection and set about looking for the right blowing agent – one that would not result in an open-pored or streaky surface. The whole development process, from the idea to construction of the mould for volume production, took barely a year.

Injection moulding with qualityand precision

Pfeiffer manufactures the screw-on housing and the nozzle head of the body-lotion dispensers on Krauss-Maffei C Series machines, with clamp forces of 600 and 900 kN. "We take it for granted that we'll get precisely reproducible shot weights and very short cycle times," comments Production Manager Horst Schmidt. The screw-on housing and the dispenser sleeve are manufactured in an 8-cavity standard mould, while the nozzle head is manufactured in a 16-cavity mould with a slide, or split, device to shape the aperture. The inside of the nozzle head has an undercut that must be accurate to a tolerance of ±0.02 mm.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing standards

Pfeiffer employs 150 people in various injection moulding shops and operates about 70 injection moulding machines. The in-house mouldmaking department makes all replacement parts and is responsible for mould inspections and maintenance. Manufacturing to pharmaceutical standards naturally means meticulous cleanness on the production facility. Pfeiffer's cleanroom solution does not enclose the injection moulding machines themselves in cleanrooms. Instead, clean air flows from below into the mould zones which are connected via laminar-flow boxes and encapsulated conveyor belts with the cleanroom assembly area, so that parts are in a continuous flow of clean air.

As a supplier to the pharmaceuticals industry, Pfeiffer must also have its injection moulding machines validated once a year. In cooperation with specialists from Heilbronn University College and from Krauss-Maffei, Pfeiffer developed a reliable method for doing this.