A cap assembly including a self-sealing membrane that overlaps an opening to an interior of a container. The cap assembly further includes a cap having a cover portion that includes an annular wall that defines a central opening, and at least one evacuating opening located radially outward of the central opening. The cover portion defines a gap above the self-sealing membrane. The gap is configured to allow the self-sealing membrane to be at least partially displaced from the opening to allow fluid communication between the interior of the container and an outside atmosphere when a suction is applied to the cap.

A capping and de-capping apparatus (100) for capping and de-capping tubes (112) disposed in a tube holding rack (111) having a two-dimensional array of apertures (114) for holding the tubes (112). The apparatus (100) comprises a rack support (110) for supporting the tube holding rack (111), a head unit (120) adapted for carrying a cartridge (152) comprising at least one capping and de-capping gripper (122), a drive system (130) for moving the rack support (110) and the head unit (120) relatively towards and away from one another, in order to cause engagement or disengagement of the capping and de-capping gripper (122) with or from a cap (113) of at least one tube (112), and a drive system (140) for rotating the capping and de-capping gripper (122), wherein rotation in one direction causes attachment of the cap (113) to the tube (112) and rotation in the opposite direction causes detachment of the cap (113) from said tube (112).

An evacuated bottle system including a bottle defining a hollow interior, the bottle having a neck defining an opening that provides fluid communication with the interior; a cap assembly including a funnel having a first portion and a second portion, where the second portion extends radially outward from the first portion to form a floor on an interior thereof and a shoulder on an exterior thereof, the first portion defining a first bore and the second portion defining a second bore fluidly connected to the first bore; a self serum stopper having a self sealing membrane that extends radially outward to overlie at least a portion of the floor of the funnel; and a cap having a cap wall sized to fit over the funnel and a cover portion extending radially inward from the cap wall.

A sterile procedure for the filing of solids into pharmaceutical containers and the sealing thereof under sterile conditions is provided. Exemplary containers include syringes, vials, capsules, ampoules, single-dose devices or cartridges. The containers can be filled with powder, granules, nanoparticles or microparticles. After sealing, the containers are airtight. More specifically, the procedure minimizes adherence of those solids to the interior surfaces of the containers during the filling and sealing steps, thus ensuring airtightness of the seal and precision of the weight of the solid dispensed into the containers.

A method for producing sterile solution product bags includes positioning a manifold assembly onto a filling machine. The manifold assembly includes a plurality of bags, a first filter, and a connection line in fluid communication with the first filter. Each of the plurality of bags includes a bladder and a stem in fluid communication with the bladder and with the connection line. The method includes activating a pump and at least partially filling one or more of the bladders by pumping fluid through the feed line, the first filter, and the connection line. The method includes sealing the stem of each of the filled product bags at a location between the connection line and the bladder, thereby creating one or more at least partially filled and sealed product bags. The method includes separating each of the at least partially filled and sealed product bags from the connection line.

A machine for coupling a plunger rod to a syringe assembly may include a carriage including a cradle having a seat portion sized to receive a syringe assembly and an aperture portion disposed above the seat portion and sized to receive a plunger rod. An actuating device may be operatively coupled to the carriage and adapted to move the cradle from a first position to a second position to couple the plunger rod to the syringe assembly. The carriage may be selected from separate and interchangeable first and second carriages, wherein the first carriage includes a cradle adapted to receive a syringe assembly of a first size and the second carriage including a cradle sized to receive a syringe assembly of a second size that is different from the first size.

A method for processing of glass containers includes: simultaneously subjecting the glass containers to a first processing step; and simultaneously subjecting the glass containers to a second processing step after the first processing step. At least one of before or during at least one of the first processing step or the second processing step an outer container surface of each glass container is contact-free or in contact with a material having a lower hardness than that of the glass container or only in contact with such materials.

An evacuated bottle system including a bottle defining a hollow interior, the bottle having a neck with a rim defining an opening; a cap assembly supported on the bottle, the cap assembly including a funnel having a first portion and a second portion, the first portion being insertable within the interior of the bottle and the second portion engaging a portion of the bottle to support the funnel above the rim, the funnel defining a bore that fluidly communicates with the hollow interior of the bottle; a self-sealing membrane that covers the bore formed by the funnel to selectively seal the hollow interior of the bottle; a cap attachable to the bottle, the cap including a cover portion that extends at least partially over the self-sealing membrane to restrain movement thereof, the cover portion being axially spaced from the self-sealing membrane to define a gap that permits axial movement of the self-sealing membrane to selectively open the bottle to fluid communication outside of the bottle.

Described and depicted is a method for processing and/or filling packagings, in particular cardboard composite packagings, in a processing and/or filling machine. In order to reduce the mechanistic effort required for high throughput and/or to enable more flexible operation, it is provided that packaging blanks are transferred in a take-over station in a cyclical sequence to the mandrels of a cyclically rotating mandrel wheel passing the take-over station, that regularly after a certain number of packaging blanks have been taken over in the take-over station by the mandrels passing the take-over station to a further certain number of mandrels subsequently passing the take-over station, no packaging blank is transferred in the take-over station, in at least one moulding station, the packaging blanks transferred to the mandrel wheel in the take-over station are cyclically processed on a mandrel of the mandrel wheel, in that after passing the at least one moulding station in a transfer station to all cells of a transport device passing the transfer station, packagings which are open on one side are transferred cyclically one after another from the mandrel wheel, and that the packagings which are transferred to the cells and are open on one side are fed in the cells of the transport device to at least one processing station for processing and/or to at least one filling station for filling.

A barrel is provided having open proximal end and a closed distal end, and at least one groove in an interior wall thereof. The groove(s) define a length extending a distance from the open end of the barrel toward the distal end of the barrel and defining a substantially constant depth and width along the length thereof. A piston is in sealing engagement with the interior wall of the barrel. The groove(s) permits fluid to bypass the piston when positioned along the groove(s). At least a portion of the piston is positioned distally from the groove(s), thereby sealing substance within the barrel.