August Faller invests in Muller Martini Alprinta 74

August Faller has installed a new production line in Binzen (Germany) to improve production of its pharmaceutical inserts. The new line comprises an Alprinta 74 web offset printing press with a stack delivery system for sizes of up to 740 x 1010 mm, and a finishing line with a GUK folding machine.
 
Faller is one of Germany's market leaders for pharmaceutical packaging.  The site in Binzen, opened in 2003, is its second specialist center for manufacturing package inserts, the first being at Grossbeeren.  According to Jörg Frischkorn who heads up the package inserts sector at the Pharma Service Center: ‘The Faller site in Binzen produces around 900 million package inserts every year.’
 
It was a recommendation from the European Union that sparked the decision to invest in the new production line.  In the future, package inserts must be printed in larger fonts to make them more legible, and new statutory regulations will also require package inserts to be provided in more than one language.
 
The new Alprinta line enables August Faller to produce both web printed products and sheet fed printed items.  The most striking feature is that the 740-mm wide signatures can be a maximum of 1016 mm long, meaning they can be used to produce a huge range of package inserts.  The printing press, which reaches production speeds of 365 m/min, also features a web scanning video device and a complete inline print image monitoring system.
 
‘The finishing line for web-printed products, with its GUK folding machine, means that Faller is well equipped for producing large size package inserts, and this is an area that will continue to grow,’ said Dr Daniel Keesman, managing partner at the company.