Seward ramps up blender bag manufacturing

Manufacturer of Stomacher paddle blenders used in sample preparation for microbiological analysis Seward has increased production capacity for its blender bags. By locally manufacturing its range of Stomacher 400 and 3,500 ml bags at its UK facility, Seward claims to have reduced delivery lead times for its European customers and minimised its environmental footprint.

Seward already strives to ensure rapid supply of Stomacher products to customers worldwide through local bag manufacture and stocking from regional sites in the US and Singapore. As well as reducing delivery times, this policy for local manufacture and stocking should help minimise the impact of rising material and transportation costs on product price. Furthermore, this complies with Seward’s environmental policy to minimise material and energy wastage and promote the use of recyclable and renewable materials. In doing this, the company aims to achieve the ISO 14001 environmental management standard by mid-2014.

Since starting manufacturing bags in the UK, Seward reports that it is now recycling 85% of all its plastic and cardboard material production waste, contributing to an overall 40% reduction in general company waste.

“We are committed to operating our business in a manner that is sensitive to the needs and concerns of the people and surrounding environment; bringing our manufacturing processes in line with our environmental policy is just one of a number of measures that we have adopted to achieve this,” said Dan Crothers, general manager, Seward. “We are particularly keen to talk to customers who have similar environmental policies to us and are interested in collaborating to reduce the environmental impact of laboratory testing. We can also discuss OEM manufacturing requirements.”

Seward’s Stomacher bag range has been designed to fulfill applications from sample blending, straining and storage, including bags designed for extensive blending (processes requiring more than 15 minutes on the machine) and small samples for life science applications.

Made from high quality food grade virgin LDPE granule extruded to 65 µm film thickness, Stomacher blender bags are designed to withstand extensive blending without tears or perforations. According to the company, this provides a low-cost option for sample preparation with no risk of cross contamination between samples. All Stomacher blender bags are irradiated sterile and a certificate of irradiation is available for all bag products upon request.        

Seward, www.seward.co.uk.