‘In India, we are considered to be one of the best and trusted brands in the industry’

Debasish Roy, MD and Subhasish Roy, CEO, The United Engineering Company (UEC) spoke to Express Pharma about the current state of pharma packaging industry in the country

Today, after five decades in pharma-machinery manufacturing industry, how has UEC positioned itself?

In the last five decades, UEC has developed more than 30 kinds of indigenous pharmaceutical machinery and we are continuously upgrading ourselves. From the early 60’s of the last century, UEC has become a major house of the import substitute in pharma machinery though we are much aware of high-speed machine from the first world country and also stiff competition from low valued machines from our neighbouring countries, UEC machines still hold their own position. In India, we are considered to be one of the best and trusted brands in the industry. ‘UNITED’ machines also cut a niche for itself in the international markets. We are growing as a brand day-by-day.

In the Indian pharma industry, automatic ampoule filling and sealing machine means UEC. Which machines are in your product basket for small volume and large volume parenteral manufacturers?

UNITED Automatic Ampoule Filling & Sealing (AFS) machines are widely accepted in the market, not only in India but also overseas. They are the most reliable and efficient machines available in the market, adhering to all the current manufacturing practices, technologies and automation. We have various models of our AFS machine having various outputs and dosing system to cater to the customer’s need.

Apart from our AFS machines, our product list offers ampoule and vial washing, automatic liquid filling, automatic rubber dispensing and pressing, and, automatic sealing machines for vials, both in automatic and semi-automatic models. We also manufacture automatic labelling machines for ampoules and vials both for paper and sticker labels. Our latest inclusion being the external cleaning and drying machine for ampoules and vials, has made our brand a one stop solution for our clients. These machines are available in models with different outputs.

All the UNITED machines are manufactured with equal expertise and are accepted and appreciated in India as well as in abroad for their quality, efficiency, performance and the fact for these being ‘value for money’ products. Our customer support team also plays an important role in making our brand trustworthy.

What are the latest developments for your bottling line of machines?

Apart from our pilot scale and automatic linear line of machines for bottles, we have introduced a total range of rotary machines for bottles, which includes UNITED ARBW —Automatic Rinsing Machine which can handle 30 ml to 450 ml in the same machine and can clean the container with both water and air. The ‘ARBW’ has five different models depending on the speed.

UNITED ‘RBFS’ -Automatic monoblock bottle filling and capping machine which has three different models with a newly developed special UNIZIGMA head for pet bottles.

For non-metallic caps we have introduced a special ‘Pick and Place unit’ and ‘Magnetic Screw Capping Head’, to maintain a certain torque as required by the customer.

Inline with the above high speed labelling machines, we manufacture high speed labelling machines for sticker and paper labels suitable for round and flat bottles. These machines are manufactured as per the latest manufacturing techniques and automation.

The company had introduced ‘UNICOATA’, automatic coating machine lately. Tell us more about the machine. Where is ‘UNICOATA’ used?

‘UNICOATA’ was introduced by UEC quite a few years back and has had a remarkable response. It is a complete range of solutions for automatic tablet coating. It provides the user with best and uniform coating results with simple operation, yet equipped with the latest technology.

UNICOATA’ maintains an international standard and is a ‘No-Frill’, easy to use machine and excellent results. Around 60 machines have already been installed including ‘Multiple installations’ in Iran, the US and Bangladesh.

Maintaining strict ‘quality control’ parameters, is an important element in today’s pharma production business. How is UEC conforming to the quality guidelines?

UEC has a QC Team, who are responsible of all the raw materials. Apart from DQ, IQ and OQ, UEC’s QC team are responsible for physical and chemical testing of raw material from reputed testing houses. Most of the machine parts of UEC are made from CNC or VMC and are hardened depending on the quality of the material, procurement of appropriate raw materials from the right place.

Which pharma companies use UEC machines?

It is very hard to name a few of the companies in India as we are catering to the needs of most of the pharma companies. Besides, we are providing our machines to leading names in Bangladesh like Opsonin Pharma, Renata (previously Pfizer Bangladesh), Drug International, Hamdard – Bangladesh, Pharmadesh Lab, Kemiko Pharma, Incepta Pharma, Essential Drugs and several others.

Do you export these machines and to which countries?

We have a strong foothold in the overseas market and have exported to countries like Bangladesh, Iran, Nairobi, Nigeria, Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Chile, the US, Canada, the UAE, Nepal.

Presently, we are looking to extend our horizons to the European and other markets.

What are your future plans?

Being into business for more than five decades, we have a lot of things to do, a lot of targets to achieve and explore different avenues. Turning every unturned stones and being better than the best is the motto for the future.