Simulation of pharmaceutical blister pack thermoforming using a non-isothermal integral model

A potential material change for a pharmaceutical blister pack required costly and time-consuming re-validation. One of the major issues associated with this is the water vapour barrier of a formed blister needed to guarantee an acceptable shelf life of the packaged drugs. This study considered a non-isothermal FEM analysis of the forming process, using the new model incorporated into the POLYFLOW simulation software, and taking into account plug assist forming. This was validated on current materials before being used for the new material. A new post processor was used to calculate the moisture barrier of each blister, and to evaluate the potential benefit of using a new material for medical packaging.