Daphne Allen

February 5, 2016

3 Min Read
Oliver-Tolas Healthcare Packaging expands heat-seal coating capacity
Oliver-Tolas medical-grade reinforced paper rollstock coated on the additional coater

Oliver-Tolas Healthcare Packaging recently expanded its operations in Hamilton, OH, to include an additional high-speed coating line for producing its SealScience heat-seal coatings for sterile-grade packaging materials. The company recently celebrated the expansion with a ribbon cutting and will be at Booth #1939 at MD&M West 2016 in Anaheim, CA, February 9-11 to discuss the added capacity.

“The expansion supports business growth and continued increasing demand for flexible healthcare packaging,” Jody Beeck, Marketing & Product Manager, tells PMP News. “We chose to invest in Hamilton to leverage the skills and expertise of our team responsible for producing our SealScience coated products. Keeping the manufacturing site consistent lessens the scope of change for our customers.” 

Operational since 1992, the Hamilton site “will continue to supply adhesive coated substrates to our converting operations globally,” explains Beeck; those operations are Grand Rapids, MI; Feasterville, PA; Venray, The Netherlands; and Suzhou, China.

The added coating line also expands Oliver-Tolas’s redundancy programs. “We have strengthened redundancy of our SealScience adhesive coating operations with this investment,” she adds. “Previous investment to our Grand Rapids, MI, operation strengthened redundancy of our Xhale adhesive coating operations.”

Adds Russell Douglas, Global VP of Operations, in a statement: “This is one of many proactive steps we take to insulate our customers from the risk of supply interruptions. Producing high-quality heat-seal coated products for the healthcare market is extremely demanding. Our customers deliver life-saving products and we share a responsibility to ensure patient safety with safe and effective packaging materials.” The new coating line includes a sophisticated vision system for detecting defects and a number of automated process monitoring controls, Oliver-Tolas reported in the statement.

To help medical device manufacturers evaluate products produced on the new line, Oliver-Tolas developed a validation plan. “Our process and product validations for the newly installed line have been conducted with customer impact top of mind,” says Beeck. “While we are excited to install and work with the latest technologically advanced coating equipment, we must ensure that the equipment and processes for operating it generate equivalent coated product. Our customers rely on us to deliver consistent product meeting specification each and every time we deliver. Our customers will be able to leverage the data we generate during our verification and validation work to help conduct their own risk assessments.”

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The Oliver-Tolas Hamilton team and project team members pose in front of the new coating equipment.

The expansion could also result in new products. “Our adhesive technology has evolved with market demands over the past 40+ years,” says Beeck. “The added capacity will allow us to expand our product portfolio while ensuring our heat seal coatings perform optimally. We’re preparing to introduce next generation coatings that leverage decades of formulation experience and meet the need for cost effective packaging options.”

States Jerry Bennish, President and CEO, of the expansion: “We are excited to enhance the value we deliver to our customers. Quality, cleanliness, continuity of supply, and controlling costs are of utmost importance to healthcare manufacturers. Our recent investments will ensure we are exceeding customer expectations in these areas.”

For more details, please visit Oliver-Tolas at MD&M West Booth #1939 February 9-11 in Anaheim, CA, or visit www.oliver-tolas.com.

About the Author(s)

Daphne Allen

Daphne Allen is editor-in-chief of Design News. She previously served as editor-in-chief of MD+DI and of Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News and also served as an editor for Packaging Digest. Daphne has covered design, manufacturing, materials, packaging, labeling, and regulatory issues for more than 20 years. She has also presented on these topics in several webinars and conferences, most recently discussing design and engineering trends at IME West 2024 and leading an Industry ShopTalk discussion during the show on artificial intelligence.

Follow Daphne on X at @daphneallen and reach her at [email protected].

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