August Faller orders Heidelberg Primefire 106 for digital pharmaceutical packaging production

August Faller, based in Waldkirch, Germany, has invested in a Heidelberg Primefire 106 digital printing system to meet growing demand for shorter runs and delivery times in the pharmaceutical market.

The Primefire 106 opens up new applications through variable printing and customization

August Faller managing partner Dr Michael Faller commented: ‘We specialize in the production of secondary packaging for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, and see ourselves as a supply chain partner to our customers. The diversity of the Primefire technology will create new opportunities in packaging production, which is increasingly moving towards customization, serialization and digitization.’

Heidelberg said digitization supports the trend towards smaller runs resulting from specialized medicinal products. August Faller is evolving its digitization strategy, and Jörg Frischkorn, the company’s head of European operations, said: ‘Digital printing is an important link in the digitization of our administrative and productive processes. By networking digital printing with our preprint processes and the digital ordering and job system, we will increase the profitability and flexibility of our processes in the long term and, by doing so, also generate benefits for customers.’

‘Heidelberg is the ideal partner for us because of its process knowledge along the value chain,’ added Dr Faller. ‘The partnership plays an important role in us being able to offer our customers new options for producing competitive and attractive packaging. What’s more, our employees are already looking forward to tapping the attractive opportunities offered by digital printing and upgrading their skills.’

August Faller is a long-term customer of Heidelberg, and currently runs 10 Heidelberg sheet-fed presses in 50 x 70cm format at its sites in Waldkirch and Lodz in Poland, all delivering high productivity through digital processes. It also has two die-cutting machines and nine folder gluers from Heidelberg for its post-press needs.

Products produced by the August Faller Group – folding cartons, package inserts and adhesive labels as well as combination products and packaging services – require high availability and flexibility, as well as high quality and zero defect production. Environmental matters are also of concern to August Faller, with the water-based inkjet ink used by the Primefire platform recyclable, while little paper waste is claimed to be produced.

‘With the Primefire, we can guarantee the very high safety standards of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, even for short runs and variable data,’ said Peter Ganter, director of the company’s PharmaServiceCenter Folding Cartons in Waldkirch. ‘As a specialist in offset printing, high print image quality is also crucial for us. Our print tests on the Primefire showed coverage of 95 percent of the Pantone color space.

‘Furthermore, the result achieved with the substrates we used was identical to that of offset printing. End customers will not be able to notice any difference compared with conventional offset printing results at first glance.’

August Faller will take delivery of its Heidelberg Primefire 106 next year, as part of the technology’s worldwide market launch.

Read more about Heidelberg’s digital strategy in L&L issue 3, 2017