Among the pharmaceutical packaging materials, aluminum foil is the most widely used one. For example, blister packs are often used as unit-dose packaging for tablets, capsules, etc. This material can divide the medicine, and there will be no influence between the medicines. The main component of a blister pack is a cavity or pocket made of formable film, usually thermoformed plastic or cold-formed aluminum.

There are two common forming methods of aluminum foil, namely cold forming, and hot forming. When forming aluminum foil, the appropriate forming method will be selected according to the different medicinal materials. These two methods have their own advantages and disadvantages.

HWPFP (Huawei Pharma Foil Packaging) summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of these two methods.

Advantages of cold forming pharma foil packaging :

1. The most basic material of forming mesh is PVC or polyvinyl chloride, which is easy to thermoform and low cost.
2. The product can be visually inspected through transparent plastic.
3. The faulty blister card can be removed by the detection camera or the naked eye.
4. Cold-formed medicinal foil provides an almost complete barrier to moisture, light, and oxygen, thus extending the shelf life of the product.

Disadvantages of Pharma foil packaging cold forming:

1. Poor molding is prone to occur: During the molding process of the blister machine, the temperature is not high enough and the structure of the mold is complicated, which leads to the fact that the blister molding does not match the actual mold structure, size, and appearance, and a concave state is formed when it is not in place.
2. The temperature is too low, which causes the blister product to rot and a missing line is formed on the edge.
3. Uneven thickness: During blister molding, the thickness of the blister is likely to be different due to the high temperature.

Advantages of thermoforming pharma foil packaging:

1. No cracking, no deformation, scratch resistance, heat resistance, stain resistance, fade resistance,
2. And the daily maintenance is simple

Disadvantages of thermoforming pharma foil packaging:

1. Due to the poor barrier properties of PVC to the entry of moisture and oxygen, the protective performance is not strong.
Slower production speed compared to thermoforming;
2. The packaging is opaque, making the inspection system for rejecting defective blister cards complicated and costly.
3. The cost of the cold-formed aluminum film is higher than that of PVC.
4. Due to the transparency of PVC, it is not suitable for photosensitive drugs.