Timestrip is proud to announce the successful certification to ISO 13485:2003 Quality Management Standard for Medical Devices in addition to our recent recertification of ISO 9001:2008.
Recognised around the world, the ISO 13485:2003 registration is based on eight quality management principles. These include: customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement, fact-based decision-making and mutually beneficial supplier relationships.
The certification of the Company’s compliance with ISO 13485:2003 recognizes the policies, practices and procedures of our firm to ensure consistent quality in the products provided to our customers. With this certification, our medical and non-medical clients can be confident that Timestrip is dedicated to maintaining the highest efficiency and responsiveness achieving our ultimate goal – Guaranteed Customer Satisfaction.
Timestrip is certified as meeting the requirements of ISO:13485 for the following activities: DEVELOPMENT AND MANUFACTURING OF SMART LABELS FOR MEDICAL USE.
To maintain our certification, Timestrip will perform annual audits to ensure compliance and to assess initiatives for continued improvement. Our customers can be confident that Timestrip will continue to provide the high quality services they have come to expect well into the future.
We believe that our decision to become ISO 13485 Certified is a proactive one that not only anticipates the demands of our customers, but also demonstrates our commitment to providing quality services to all our customers in the medical industry. We strongly believe augmenting our certification offers our customers a “Best-in-Class” choice for smart labels.
The accreditation also supports our work in pharmaceutical categories, where a range of Timestrip products are used to identify temperature breaches in highly regulated cold chain environments. We are helping to protect patients and prevent unnecessary wastage of many drugs, vaccines and blood products, where the 2-8°C/46°F storage range is critical to so many products.
Timestrip indicators are leading the market in the provision of low-cost temperature indicators, as demonstrated by our blood bag temperature monitoring labels. In 2013 we launched the Timestrip Blood Temp 10 indicator, in response to the need to reduce wastage of precious blood stocks, discarded through uncertainty around temperature breaches incurred when bags are in use and removed from carefully controlled refrigeration storage units in blood banks.
In 2014, Timestrip UK Ltd announced it is working with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders to develop new blood temperature monitoring labels with a product development program looking to create optimal temperature monitoring labels for the blood collection, distribution and transfusion organisations operating within the Flanders catchment area.
Temperature monitoring labels based on the existing Timestrip Blood Temp 10 product are now being developed and reviewed in consultation with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders.
Also in 2014 we were proud to be the technology of choice for an innovative new product created to provide a wearable, low-cost vaccination reminder product for new-born children.
The Bill Gates Foundation funded Vaccine Reminder Band is currently undergoing field trials in Pakistan. Timestrip has a long history of innovation in the medical device sector and we now provide a range of products which act as invaluable visual aids to doctors, patients and healthcare workers.
For example in the UK, a number of NHS dispensing pharmacies are already using Timestrip® PLUS to monitor the cold chain for temperature-sensitive drugs such as Neulasta® and Total Paternal Nutrition (‘TPN’) products.
Timestrip is committed to quality assurance processes and procedures and we see the ISO 13485:2003 Quality Management Standard for Medical Devices accreditation as a natural progression of our work in the specialist markets in which we aim to excel.
Belgium Military Hospital uses Timestrip Temperature Indicators to help protect vital blood stocks - PRESS RELEASE
Smart label pioneers Timestrip, working with their Benelux distribution partner INNOLABEL, have confirmed that the Queen Astrid Military Hospital in Belgium has adopted a temperature control regime for red blood cells, platelets and plasma using Timestrip Temperature Indicators. Application of the Timestrip labels is helping to expose potentially fatal changes caused by damaging ascending or descending temperature and prevent unnecessary wastage of valuable life saving products through accurate temperature monitoring outside the cold chain
In addition to ongoing patient care and clinical research conducted at the hospital, there is a burns center and a blood bank taking donations from the active military and local civilian defense staff. Patients in the burns center are treated with blood products from the blood bank, along with children in the Hematology Oncology Center at the nearby Queen Fabiola Hospital.
Blood products are also shipped abroad to treat service personnel on foreign assignments, often in lifesaving scenarios.
In line with the Federal Public Health regulatory guidelines, the red blood cells, platelets and plasma are collected, processed and stored at their prescribed temperatures until released from the cold chain. Red blood cell concentrates are stored in refrigerators at +4 °C. Blood plasma is frozen to -80 ° C. Platelets are stored at a temperature of +22 ° C and gently agitated to prevent coagulation. The temperature in medical refrigerators is constantly monitored and reported, in line with regulatory demands.
However, the transportation of the red blood cell concentrates from the blood bank refrigerators to the care unit or operating theatre takes place in refrigerated boxes. It is here where Timestrip indicators become the guardians of product quality, monitoring individual product consignments for temperature abuse.
Timestrip indicators are activated by simple finger pressure and placed directly on to blood bag labels, monitoring the core bag temperature and providing clear visual indications of temperature excursions between 2-8 °C - including the length of time of that excursion. Freeze indicators also used on products to identify if a damaging temperature descent has occurred below 0 °C, either at altitude or in severe cold climates.
Timestrip indicators show that the necessary transportation temperatures (outside of the controlled cold chain) have been maintained. As a result, decisions regarding the permissible return of stock to the blood bank, or the safe use of products kept in cool boxes over a prolonged treatment period are made possible. The failsafe nature of the Timestrip technology and the irreversible display readings remove all ambiguity from the quality checks.
Without Timestrip indicators, the care teams would be obliged to follow The Federal Public Health guidelines that demand red blood cell concentrates returned to the blood bank are destroyed, if there is no proof that optimal storage conditions were maintained. The result is that invaluable blood products are destroyed by this lack of certainty. In the past, this ambiguity has led to significant wastage of perfectly good product, which is both costly and ethically uncomfortable to front line teams who know that blood donors give blood to help protect life, not see their donations discarded due to ambiguity.
Commenting on the adoption of Timestrip indicators, Dr. Christian Vandenvelde, Head of the Military Department for Blood Transfusion observes "By using the freeze indicators we can tell if the product has been frozen during storage or transport. Should an error occur and, for example, platelets have been kept in a freezer instead of at room temperature, then the freeze indicator makes this temperature abuse absolutely clear. With red blood cells, freezing causes the red blood cells to break down and if the temperature rises too high then bacteria could multiply to dangerous levels."
There are no special storage requirements for Timestrip labels which makes handling much more efficient when compared to other indicators. This is critical in operational terms, given that the blood bank teams have identified the need for speed when it comes to ID-tagging red blood cell concentrates once removed from the cold chain.Lieutenant France T'Sas, Doctor in biomedical sciences, has seen a big improvement in the way products are handled, commenting ''By using the TimestripPlus label, we noticed that there was already a limited excursion of the optimal temperature during ID - tagging of the red blood cell concentrates. The fact is that it warms up quickly, while it takes much longer to cool down. Timestrip indicators have helped identify this and as a result we have adapted and speeded up our procedures to prevent these excursions. The TimestripPlus label is very user friendly, very accurate and readable to anyone without any additional explanation.''
Dr.Vandenvelde concludes, "By applying freeze indicator and a TimestripPlus label, we can demonstrate that we now have continuous temperature monitoring of our blood products. This also means that we have more certainty on the storage conditions in order to take back blood products. Moreover, any human error can be discovered and critical mistakes avoided.
As a results of these advances in red blood cell product monitoring , we are now also using Timestrip labels with different temperature limits to apply to the platelets and plasma , because here continuous temperature control is an absolute must. Also, the cost of a TimestripPlus label is negligible in relation to the value of the blood products. These life saving products are too precious not to employ all means possible in order to improve our procedures, ensure quality and remove unnecessary wastage.
"The Belgium Military logistics teams are also using Timestrip indicators for temperature control of red blood cells during air transport to Africa, where they have soldiers in active service. All air transport equipment is validated for the transportation of red blood cell concentrates and both the Timestrip Plus and freeze indicators are used inside the validated shippers to help front line medical teams keep an eye on optimal temperatures during transport.
2013 saw the launch of several new products in the Timestrip range and a significant uplift in enquiries from within key sectors such as pharmaceuticals, life sciences and healthcare.
One such example being the Temp 10 temperature breach indicator label created for blood bags – now saving time, money and lives in blood banks across Europe and the USA.
Timestrip time temperature innovation
Innovation remains a core strand of our dynamic approach to solution development and the practical application of patented, low-cost smart label indicators.
As a result the company is looking to appoint a raft of new sales and marketing partners for its entire range, with a focus initially on mainland Europe.
Organisations with expertise and established routes to market within cold-chain markets in pharmaceuticals, medicines, vaccines, blood products and life sciences are invited to make contact for initial consultations with us via our contact page.
Start up company Pristine Solutions has developed a solution for wineries and fine wine distributors who are committed to their consumers pouring a perfect glass of vino.
Since the quality of wine can be affected by temperature changes, Pristine created a tag with a temperature monitoring Timestrip indicator, that visually alerts the consumer that the wine is no longer at peak quality due to a temperature disturbance.
The tags can be affixed to the bottles of wine and have a unique QR code to connect consumers with an app that can track their wine purchases.
Read more about this unique startup in their Forbes profile.
Timestrip, a leading manufacture of cold chain temperature indicators that provide reliable monitoring of temperature excursions for goods in storage and/or transit announced today that it has signed a strategic distribution partnership agreement with TIP TEMPerature Products, a temperature products distribution company. The partnership allows TIP TEMPerature Products to sell the complete line of Timestrip products. (more…)
Timestrip is celebrating after winning twice at the 2009 UK Packaging Awards. The smart label experts were nominated in the Labelling and Innovation award categories and came up trumps in both, for their project with cosmetics firm CARGO. The venture, which went live earlier this year, saw a nine-month Timestrip® integrated into the packaging of CARGO’s leading lip-gloss.
Custom timestrip indicator labels
Timestrip’s customisation of a label for the CARGO project required it to achieve two product firsts: coming up with a nine-month room temperature product and making it significantly smaller than any of their existing labels. Both were successful and the Timestrip® was embedded into the cap of CARGO’s lip-gloss at the point of manufacture.
The consumer pushes it fully into the cap before using the gloss for the first time and the integrated Timestrip® is automatically activated. It then monitors a period of nine months – the recommended ‘shelf life’ of a lip gloss – clearly indicating when that time is up and the product should be discarded. Timestrip’s nine-month room temperature label worked so well that the company is now developing a 12-month ambient product as well.
The Packaging Awards judges were impressed by the ‘genuinely innovative’ nature of Timestrip’s customised label, calling it ‘much needed’ and going on to praise the integrated solution as ‘a very good way to solve the best-by date issue.’ As well as a number of respected senior industry professionals, the panel included representatives from Waitrose, Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s, as well as global consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser, smoothie kings Innocent and confectioner Hotel Chocolat.
2008 Labelling Award winners Chesapeake Branded Packaging have enjoyed great success since their win last year and Timestrip is understandably bullish about the future.
“It’s amazing to have collected not one, but two awards,” said a thrilled Reuben Isbitsky, Timestrip’s Joint CEO. “It’s particularly satisfying to be recognised for innovation - the CARGO project is a great example of the potential and versatility of the Timestrip® technology. It shows how we are constantly pushing the boundaries of product development to work with different applications.”
The launch of the CARGO product brought a huge amount of interest from cosmetics companies keen to use Timestrip® to add value to their own products.
Timestrip’s product development has been significant over recent months and new lines include a specific filtration product; Timestrip I.V., which works in medical applications; and further development of its cold chain range. Timestrip® is becoming the global standard in visual product labelling and the company works with market-leading companies in many industries worldwide.
Leading smart label producer Timestrip has been shortlisted in two categories at this year’s UK Packaging Awards. The prestigious event is the industry’s major awards scheme and Timestrip has been nominated both in the Labelling category and for Innovation of the Year, for its recent venture with CARGO Cosmetics. The firm joins illustrious company in the Packaging Awards shortlist, including consumer products giants Reckitt Benckiser and Procter & Gamble.
Timestrip’s innovative venture with Canadian cosmetics firm CARGO saw a nine-month Timestrip® incorporated into the product packaging for CARGO’s new lip gloss range. The project required Timestrip to come up with three product development firsts: producing a nine-month label; reducing the size of the label to make it considerably smaller than standard Timestrips®; and finally, enabling the label to be activated automatically when the consumer first uses their lip gloss.
The integrated Timestrip® is embedded in the cap of CARGO’s lip gloss and is activated when the consumer pushes it fully into the cap before using the gloss for the first time. The Timestrip® then monitors a period of nine months – the recommended ‘shelf life’ of a lip gloss – clearly indicating when that time is up and the product should be discarded.
By shortlisting Timestrip in the Innovation category, the awards team has recognised a product innovation that is not only functional, but also meets the demanding aesthetic requirements of the cosmetics sector.
Timestrip’s Joint CEO, Reuben Isbitsky, is understandably pleased with the nominations: “We worked closely with CARGO to enable them to be the first to market with this technology and we have been pleased with the success of the project. Much of our work is ground-breaking in terms of labelling technology and it’s very satisfying to have those innovative qualities officially recognised with these nominations.“
With a record number of entries for this year’s UK Packaging Awards, competition will be particularly stiff. The judging panel includes top buyers from Tesco, Asda, B&Q, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, as well as representatives from a host of leading brands and packaging guru Robert Opie, founder of the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising. Their decisions will be announced at the formal awards ceremony, which takes place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Central London on 4th November.
Timestrip works with market-leading companies in many industries worldwide; the company’s success in a range of different market sectors has been such that Timestrip® is becoming the global standard in visual product labelling. With an ongoing programme of research and development, Timestrip is fast becoming the world leader in time and temperature monitoring.
Popular in Europe, unique technology provides a solution to a number of consumer health concerns
Growing consumer demand for monitoring product safety helps build retail distribution
Timestrip Plc, the innovative “smart label” company, is introducing its unique label technology to U.S. distributors and retailers at the International Home & Housewares Show in Chicago March 16-18, 2008. The show features more than 2,000 exhibitors from 34 countries, and is attended by more than 20,000 buyers from over 100 countries around the world.
U.K.-based Timestrip designs, manufactures and distributes Timestrip® smart labels which visually monitor elapsed time from minutes up to over a year on any product to which they are adhered. Each label contains an oil which, when activated, travels across it at a consistent rate, enabling consumers easily to see how long a product has been open or in use.
Timestrip replacement reminders
Inexpensive and versatile, Timestrips® can be used as external stick-on labels or integrated into manufactured products for which time is a factor for quality, safety or health.
They have gained considerable acceptance throughout Europe where manufacturers including Nestle, Fagor and Whirlpool have integrated the unique labels into their product designs or packaging. In the U.S, Hamilton Beach has incorporated Timestrips® into its Febreze odor eliminator and, recently, market-leader United Pet Group integrated the labels into its new line of Whisper EX aquarium filtration systems.
The company has created customized applications for key industry categories including appliances and consumables, food and beverage, catering and food service, and cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
“Timestrip’s unique technology provides a solution to a number of health concerns of consumers,” said Reuben Isbitsky, Joint CEO of Timestrip Plc. “Whether alerting consumers to the potential for food spoilage at picnics and barbecues, to the expiration dates of prescriptions and sunscreens, or to the potential for bacterial contamination of personal cosmetics, Timestrips play a valuable role in helping safeguard the health of consumers.”
Timestrip will be represented in the International Home & Housewares Show by Media Corp. in Booth 2160 in the South Hall of McCormick Hall in Chicago.
Twenty-three companies from the East of England have been recognised for their outstanding success overseas in this year's regional Passport to Export Awards by UK Trade & Investment.