The company said the extra 150 square meter space will provide valuable hands-on training equipment to supplement the centre’s theoretical and virtual reality facilities.
The investment means the new lab is equipped with the latest generation of standard or aseptic sub-assemblies. The expansion aims to help customers’ hands-on knowledge by letting them deal with real situations, said Sidel.
This lab has three distinct zones. The first room has two automation training stations: a Fanuc robot model for the training of robot operators and maintenance technicians and a teaching carrousel and test tables for the configuration of filler and mixer sub-assemblies.
A second space will focus on training on Sensofill FMa and FMm aseptic fillers. This includes a demonstration station with filling, washing and rinsing units. This space also demonstrates aseptic instruments and components.
The third training zone is dedicated to the different types of filling technologies and valves.
Centre of excellence
“With this new training lab we expand our training offer in order to respond better to the needs of our customers and our technicians and to increase the quality of services offered by the Parma Training Centre,” said Luigi Armani, central training and technical competence development director. “It also constitutes a global centre of excellence dedicated to the development of technical competences and products.”
The centre hosts almost 200 training sessions a year by multilingual trainers, with more than 1,000 customers-trainees receiving instruction.
Until now the Parma site has been equipped with classrooms aimed mainly at theoretical learning, including a ‘virtual reality’ room using innovative technologies that allow trainees to interact with projected models.
The company said it also plans to upgrade its Beijing Training Center by the second half of 2011.