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Technology
Braille on labels
To meet the packaging requirements of generic and non-generic medication in terms of faultless printing quality, high-precision decoration, primary packaging constraints, ranges, tamper-proof properties, traceability and optimised packaging costs, etc., Sleever International® has developed made-to-measure solutions. Since January 1 2006, a new European 2004/27/CE directive makes Braille characters mandatory on all new pharmaceutical packaging in order to help the blind and visually impaired in the EU benefit from improved information. It has already been translated into German and Italian law.
To help laboratories comply with this law, Sleever International® has developed a proprietary solution – Sleever® Braille – founded on a totally original approach.
After observing that the rules of Braille were far from harmonised in Europe and France, where they are dictated by the France Aveugle Association, the group first developed a set of specifications that resume the rules commonly accepted within the European Union to guarantee the legibility of Braille lettering, whatever the reading level of those concerned. As a result seven main points emerged regarding alignment of the characters on the left, direction of reading from left to right, the distance between dots, their width, their height, the distance between each group of 6 dots (which corresponds to a letter) and interlines.
Sleever International® then worked on developing a marking technology that would guarantee the presence of the characters, together with their compliance and durability over time on the basis of various abrasion, durability and tracking tests. This resulted in a Braille morphing method on the sleeve, which is heat-shrunk, and the development of transparent varnishes to protect the visual without altering it. The characters are systematically controlled by a specific tool to ensure they are of the correct thickness.
The solution is compatible with the entire range of Sleever Technologies® films and can be combined with UV flexo 10-colour back/front printing. The sleeve is applied automatically on Powersleeve® machines and steam shrink Powersteam® or infrared Powerskinner® machines.
The Bétadine range of disinfectants by Meda is the first industrial application of the Sleever® Braille in Europe for the Italian market.
The Sleever® Braille solution is once again proof of the group’s capacity to give itself the means to provide reliable industrial solutions to needs expressed on a Europeanwide level by the pharmaceutical industry.
