There is no COVID-19 vaccination without those sterile rubber stoppers which seal each high-purity vaccine vial. Most of these stoppers are being manufactured on special presses designed by WICKERT Hydraulic Presses, a family-owned German engineering firm.
Rubber stoppers for vaccine vials manufactured by WICKERT
In spring 2020, suppliers of the international pharmaceutical industry awarded WICKERT with a big order of these stopper presses. The task was to enable the manufacture of billions of vaccine vials within only a few months lead time. WICKERT's press WKP 10.000 S is capable of turning out 2,000 rubber stoppers per single press stroke.
In order to cut delivery time, WICKERT has been manufacturing the presses at an accelerated speed. The first eight press units were airlifted to WICKERT’s world-wide customers using the world's largest aeroplane the Antonov AN-225.
wickert presses are also used to manufacture needle shields and syringe pistons for disposable syringes.
Owner Hans Joachim Wickert said: "Our presses are essential for bottling the vaccine. This is why our employees are highly committed to helping getting the vaccine properly sealed and delivered to the public as fast as possible. Our specialist teams have been working extra weekend-shifts to speed up delivery of our desperately needed presses.”
WICKERT helps their customers manufacture the life-saving vaccine and make it available to the public as quickly as possible by speeding up its internal production processes, reducing delivery time to six months, down from 10. Airlifting the 45-tonne presses instead of standard boat shipping yielded another 25 days delivery time gain.
Rubber stoppers for vaccine vials require government approval and must have specific properties in order to reliably seal billions of vials. They are required to seal the vaccine at extremely high ambient temperatures as well as at extremely low temperatures.