Wimco by Stelda resolves production glitch at Leben’s Akola plant

When Akola-based Leben Laboratories introduced a new SKU — a 5-gram pharmaceutical tube — the production line began experiencing severe inconsistencies. The culprit: inaccurate filling on the GAN 120 double-head tube-filling machine, originally supplied by Wimco.

To adapt the machine to the new, smaller grammage, Leben had engaged a third-party vendor to fabricate a custom change part. However, the component failed to meet critical specs, resulting in misalignment, improper tube lift height, and ultimately, a rejection rate nearing 15% — a major concern in pharmaceutical manufacturing, where Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and fill precision are non-negotiable.

In 2024, Impel Services, the parent company of Bindwel and Stelda, acquired Wimco’s designs, IP, and trademarks — reviving the legacy brand under the "Wimco by Stelda" umbrella and marking a strategic expansion into primary packaging solutions. Soon after the acquisition, Impel launched a customer reconnect initiative branded TubeFill Care+, offering a free audit of Wimco-supplied tube-filling machines to existing users.

Leben Laboratories participated in this programme, and it proved timely: the audit revealed that the production issues stemmed from incorrect change parts and mismatched CAM profiles.

Under the TubeFill Care+ initiative, Wimco by Stelda dispatched senior engineer Naresh Sinhalkar to the Akola facility. A 48-hour service response was activated. The team replaced the faulty parts with genuine Wimco CAMs, engineered specifically for 5-gram tubes. The machine was recalibrated to ensure precise tube lift and bottom filling alignment. Post-repair trials confirmed a full recovery: fill accuracy was restored, GMP compliance achieved, and rejection rates dropped to nearly zero. The machine returned to peak operational efficiency, resolving what had been a critical production bottleneck.

This case underlines how Wimco by Stelda’s TubeFill Care+ is more than a maintenance programme — it’s a strategic support initiative that helps pharmaceutical manufacturers maximise performance, minimise risk, and maintain compliance through expert guidance and original parts.