The pharmaceutical and healthcare market is increasingly moving towards specialized medicinal products. As a result, the packaging runs for these specially developed medicines are becoming ever shorter, along with the delivery times. August Faller GmbH & Co. KG based in Waldkirch, Germany has decided to counter this trend by placing an advance order for the Primefire 106 digital printing system from Heidelberg in order to obtain one of the first machines worldwide in 2018. “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,” explains Managing Partner Dr. Michael Faller. “The diversity of the Primefire technology will create new opportunities in packaging production, which is increasingly moving towards customization, serialization and digitization.”
The products produced by the August Faller Group – folding cartons, package inserts and adhesive labels as well as combination products and packaging services – call for high availability and flexibility as well as top quality and zero defect production. “With the Primefire, we can guarantee the very high safety standards of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, even for short runs and variable data,” says Peter Ganter, Director of the 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% of the Pantone colour 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.”
The technology of the Primefire has further important benefits for Faller as a sustainable company. The water-based inkjet ink is recyclable, making the cartons even more environmentally friendly. Material is also saved since very little waste is produced, which is one of the goals of sustainability when it comes to resource efficiency.
“Heidelberg is the ideal partner for us because of its process knowledge along the value chain. The partnership plays an important role in us being able to offer our customers new options for producing competitive and attractive packaging,” confirms Dr. Michael Faller. “What’s more, our employees are already looking forward to tapping into the attractive opportunities offered by digital printing and upgrading their skills.”
August Faller GmbH & Co. KG has enjoyed a decades-long partnership with Heidelberg, further strengthened by numerous joint field tests and product developments. It currently uses ten Heidelberg sheetfed presses in 50 x 70 cm 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 postpress needs.
The August Faller Group is constantly working on its digitization strategy. “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,” explains Jörg Frischkorn, Head of European Operations for Faller.
The Primefire 106 was presented at Drupa 2016 and is an industrial digital printing system in B1 format. The first field test was recently started and a further field test is due to start at the end of the year. Heidelberg is on schedule with the market launch, with demand from customers already outstripping production capacity.
The August Faller Group opted for a Heidelberg Primefire 106, and will receive one of the first machines worldwide. The CEOs of the two companies – Dr. Michael Faller (fourth from left) and Dr. Daniel Keesman (second from right) from Faller and Rainer Hundsdörfer (fourth from right) from Heidelberg – and their teams are looking forward to the digital future.
