SRT Presents Flexible Robotic Automation for Pharmaceutical Packaging at CIPM 2026
The 68th National Pharmaceutical Machinery Exposition and 2026 China International Pharmaceutical Machinery Exposition (CIPM 2026) opened on October 27 at Xiamen International Expo Center. Recognized as a major event for China’s pharmaceutical equipment industry, the exhibition brings together manufacturers and technology providers from across the pharmaceutical manufacturing supply chain.
SRT is showcasing its comprehensive AI-powered sorting and packaging solutions at Booth A12, Hall 2, highlighting flexible automation technologies designed to address pharmaceutical manufacturers’ diverse primary and secondary packaging requirements.
AI-Powered Robotic Handling for Primary Packaging
Pharmaceutical primary packaging involves a wide variety of products, including blister packs, gauze, syringes, medical cotton balls, gloves and face masks. Frequent product changes, small batch sizes and varying product geometries can make automated handling challenging.
Similar challenges arise when handling high-value, irregularly shaped products such as cordyceps, traditional Chinese medicine pills, herbal slices, donkey-hide gelatin products and ready-to-eat nutritional tonics. Their delicate structures and varied shapes make conventional, product-specific handling solutions difficult to standardize, often resulting in lengthy changeover times.
SRT’s biomimetic soft grippers use adaptive, compliant contact to handle delicate products with minimal risk of damage. Their flexibility allows a wide range of products to be handled without frequent changes to dedicated tooling or fixtures. Applications include medical consumables such as blister packs, gauze and syringes, as well as delicate, irregularly shaped products such as cordyceps, herbal medicines, traditional Chinese medicine pills and bowl-packed medicinal pastes.
For production lines handling frequent changeovers and small batches, this approach helps reduce tooling preparation time and improve operational flexibility.
Intelligent Robotic Sorting Workstation
Built around SRT’s biomimetic soft robotic grippers, the intelligent robotic sorting workstation integrates an R4 four-axis robot, drive system, conveyor and AI vision inspection system.
Designed for compact production environments, the workstation performs complex handling operations—including picking, transferring and loading—within integrated primary packaging processes for pharmaceutical products and medical consumables.
Its modular architecture also supports future expansion without requiring replacement of the main equipment, allowing production capacity to grow in line with packaging requirements.
From Traceability to All-Paper Packaging: An Integrated Secondary Packaging Solution
For secondary packaging, SRT presents its integrated cartoning, case packing and sealing machine, designed to combine multiple packaging operations within a compact footprint. The system integrates intelligent lane-dividing conveyors, high-speed cartoning and robotic case packing to help manufacturers make more efficient use of limited factory space.
The machine automates the folding, forming, loading and sealing of all-paper packaging, with a modular design that supports the addition of further operations, including insert placement, strapping, downstream handling, labeling and inspection.
Designed to meet pharmaceutical manufacturers’ operational and compliance requirements, the system can integrate with upstream production lines and associate pharmaceutical batch information with case codes in real time. UDI scanning and data association support traceability workflows while reducing reliance on manual scanning and data entry during case packing.
An integrated AI vision inspection system automatically identifies and rejects defective products, helping maintain packaging quality and consistency.
Proven Applications and Measurable Efficiency Gains
SRT’s packaging equipment has been deployed in applications including cordyceps cartoning, oral liquid case packing and donkey-hide gelatin dessert packing. The solution accommodates products in bottles, prefilled containers, cartons and bags.
According to customer estimates, case-packing speeds can reach 4–8 cases per minute, depending on the product and application. Compared with manual packing, the system can deliver 3–7.5 times higher throughput, with estimated annual labor cost savings of RMB 300,000–500,000 per production line.
CIPM 2026 runs through October 29. Visitors are welcome to meet the SRT team and explore its AI-powered sorting and integrated packaging solutions at Booth A12, Hall 2, Xiamen International Expo Center.