CIPM 2026 Xiamen Recap: The Four Questions Asked Most at Booth 9-A40

On 29 October the 68th CIPM closed at the Xiamen International Expo Center. Over the three days our stand — Hall 3 · 9-A40, 270 m² — received customers from a range of markets, and questions came from single-machine and whole-line buyers alike. This post is not a retelling of how busy the booth was. It records the four questions visitors asked most often, and the answers we gave on the stand — just as useful to the customers who could not travel to Xiamen this year.

1. The show and the Jianghua booth

2. The four machines on display

The booth was laid out "from a single machine to a complete line", so a visitor could follow the same logic and see which segment they actually need.

3. The four questions visitors asked most

Over three days the same four questions kept repeating. None of them was "how much is this machine"; all of them were "how should I choose". That also tells you most visitors were already inside a live project, not just walking the halls.

Question 1: Alu-alu or alu-PVC?

We do not give the answer "alu-alu is better" on the stand. The first sentence goes back to the customer: have you run a stability comparison between alu-PVC and alu-alu for this product? With data, the decision is arithmetic. Without data, running that comparison trial first is far cheaper than buying the machine first.

Then the capacity has to be counted. On the same machine, alu-alu output is roughly six tenths of alu-PVC: the DPH-400K/H runs 600–800 blisters/min on alu-PVC and 300–500 blisters/min on alu-alu. In one 8-hour shift: about 288,000–384,000 cards on alu-PVC, and about 144,000–240,000 cards on alu-alu.

So the answer we gave on the stand is this: alu-alu is the direction, but it only solves three things — moisture; oxygen and light; and shelf life together with the climate in which the product is sold. Where the product involves none of those three, the extra spend does not buy back an equivalent.

Question 2: A combined machine, or two separate machines?

This was the most-asked question at the booth, because it reaches straight into the investment sequence. Our answer starts with three numbers: how large the batch is, how many format changes there are in a year, and whether the floor can hold a complete line.

What a combined machine saves is not machine speed but three costs: moving cards from punching through to cartoning; where responsibility sits when something goes wrong; and the inspection steps that manual handling adds. Buying separately is flexible — with a broad product range, with batch sizes that swing, or when the investment has to be staged, two independent machines each running on their own are the better fit. A fuller comparison is in blister and cartoning combined machine: when to integrate, when to keep them separate.

Question 3: How is capacity actually calculated?

Many customers take "600–800 blisters/min" and multiply it straight by the shift time, and the number that comes out cannot be reached on the shop floor. The reason is three coefficients that were never multiplied in: cards per stroke, effective running time, and yield.

Take the DPH-400K/H running alu-PVC, with the rated midpoint at 700 blisters/min, effective running time at 70% and yield at 97%:

A gap of about 30%. That gap is not a fault in the machine; it is a difference in basis. Which is why we never promise "blisters/min" on the stand. We ask for plate size and batch size, and return a shift output figure that can go straight into production planning.

Question 4: What documents do we need to export to our country?

Customers from the EU and from markets that recognise CE asked this in the most detail. One recurring misunderstanding needs stating plainly: CE is not a certificate — it is a declaration of conformity signed by the manufacturer. These machines follow the self-declaration route; no external body issues a certificate for them.

What buyers actually ask for is this set: the declaration of conformity; the nameplate and the CE marking; an instruction manual in the official language of the country where the machine will be used; the risk assessment file; electrical and pneumatic diagrams; evidence of the safety category or performance level of the safety components; and noise data. The three items that most often hold a shipment up are the manual language, the evidence for the safety components, and whether the model on the nameplate matches the one on the declaration.

One further distinction has to be kept clear: CE covers machinery safety; it does not equal pharmaceutical production compliance. CE answers the question "can this machine injure someone". Whether drug production satisfies its own compliance requirements depends on the pharmaceutical plant's own production system and on local regulatory requirements. The two cannot substitute for each other.

4. The three questions we did not answer on the spot

Some customers hoped to leave the stand with a number. We did not give one — not because we could not, but because these three items, once detached from the actual conditions, always produce a wrong number:

• Plate size and cards per carton — this decides how many cards come off each stroke, and the size of the downstream magazine and carton

• Target shift output and number of shifts — this decides which tier to choose, and higher is not automatically better

• Document requirements of the target market — certification and pre-shipment inspection rules differ widely from country to country

So the handling on the stand was this: send those three items back, and we calculate against the real conditions before replying. On the same machine, a different plate size and batch size can move the answer by 30%. A good-looking number given on the spot would have been the irresponsible option.

5. The one thing most misunderstood in three days

If we pick out a single recurring misunderstanding, it is treating rated parameters as results. Some visitors read "blisters/min" as output. Others read "CE" as "every compliance box is ticked". Both are the same error: a parameter taken for an answer.

Parameters are a starting point, not a conclusion

Rated capacity has to be multiplied by three coefficients before it becomes shift output; CE is a market-access threshold for machinery safety, and pharmaceutical production compliance is a separate set of requirements. We repeated those two sentences at the stand for three days.

6. About Jianghua Machinery

Ruian Jianghua Machinery Co., Ltd. was founded in 1998 and specialises in the development and manufacture of blister packaging machines, cartoning machines and complete packaging lines. The company owns a 12,000 m² factory in Ruian, Zhejiang, holds ISO9001 and EU CE certification, exports to more than 20 countries and regions, and serves thousands of well-known pharmaceutical companies at home and abroad.

7. Could not make it to Xiamen? What to do next

The show has closed, but machine selection does not pause with it. If you could not come to Xiamen this time, any one of these three routes will carry the conversation forward:

1. Send us your conditions. Dosage form, plate size, cards per carton, target output per shift, target market — we work through shift output and configuration against those, and only then talk about models.

2. Book a machine viewing at the Ruian factory. Seeing a machine run, and seeing the structure of the forming and punching sections, beats any set of photographs. Technical training can be carried out at the Ruian factory free of charge.

3. Start with what is already written down. The six stations of blister packaging, how to choose between alu-PVC and alu-alu, and when to integrate rather than keep machines separate — all of it is set out on this blog. Get the thinking straight first, then ask.

And if your answer in the end is "the machines we already have are sufficient", say so directly — that is a sentence we used at the stand more than once.

FAQ

Q1. Are the machines shown at the exhibition still available to see?

The exhibition machines were configured for display on site. If you need a machine in the same configuration, book a viewing at the Ruian factory and tell us the model and configuration in advance so we can arrange it.

Q2. We could not attend — can we still get the exhibition information?

Yes. Tell us your dosage form and plate size, and we will provide the machine and configuration documentation that matches your specification, which is more targeted than a general set of materials.

Q3. We discussed a solution during the show — how is the quotation calculated?

We do not quote from a standard list. On the same model, the plate layout, the inspection configuration, the form of the cartoning section and the document requirements of the target market all change the configuration. Send the conditions back to us and we will quote against the actual configuration.

Q4. When is the next CIPM?

The dates and venue of the next edition will be confirmed by the organiser, the China Pharmaceutical Equipment Industry Association, in its official announcement. We will publish the exhibition schedule on this blog as well.

Q5. Can a complete line be seen running at the show?

The exhibition is built around machine displays and solution discussions; continuous running of a complete line is normally arranged as a factory demonstration. Customers who need to see the whole process should plan a visit to the Ruian factory.

Still have a question you did not get to ask?

Send us the dosage form, the plate size, the cards per carton and the target output per shift. We calculate the shift output and the configuration first, then tell you which tier fits — including when the answer is "your current plan does not need changing".

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