August Faller KG recently took delivery of two new Dymatrix 106 Pro CSB die cutters from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) at its folding carton PharmaServiceCenter in Waldkirch. This will enable Faller, which specializes primarily in producing pharmaceutical packaging, to boost its productivity and delivery capability. "Investing in two Dymatrix die cutters from Heidelberg underscores our strategy of focusing our machine park on our just-in-time manufacturing philosophy," says Waldkirch plant manager Nikolaus Reichenbach.

And this is exactly what the two Dymatrix 106 Pro CSB die cutters achieve, thanks to the range of technical possibilities they offer. They can process sheet formats up to 76 x 106 centimeters (29.92 x 41.73 inches) and cut, emboss, and score paper with grammages of 80 gsm and above, board up to 2,000 gsm and corrugated board up to 4 millimeters (0.16 inches) thick. And they do all this at speeds of up to 9,000 sph. The cutting force is 3.3 meganewtons, which roughly equates to 330 metric tons. The Dymatrix 106 Pro CSB works according to the principle of a mobile upper platen, thus ensuring top die cutting quality. An innovative register system that registers with accuracies of +/- 0.15 millimeters (0.0059 inches) is present in all stations such as the feeder, and the cutting, stripping, and blanking units. The motorized fine adjustment of the die cutting plate enables optimum reproducibility with minimal makeready times, particularly for repeat jobs.

Faller has been investing in Heidelberg equipment since 2002 and is a dedicated user of presses from the Speedmaster series in the pressroom. The company is equipped with the latest machines from Heidelberg for gluing and now, too, for die cutting. "We need to achieve greater efficiency in maintenance and service expenditure in terms of lean management," says Dr. Michael Faller, Managing Director of August Faller KG. "Competition on the pharmaceutical packaging market is fierce and we are committed to using state-of-the-art production technology to successfully retain our competitive edge," he adds.

With a total of seven Speedmaster CD 74 presses and a Speedmaster XL 105 in Waldkirch, Faller has the capacity to produce 1.6 billion folding cartons every year. All machines are covered by Heidelberg service contracts that provide preventive maintenance to protect against unscheduled stoppages.

For finishing, Faller uses a total of 13 Diana folder gluers from Heidelberg at its two Waldkirch plants. The machines can produce a virtually unlimited range of folding cartons - standard and straightline glued cartons, small cartons, conical folding cartons, lockbottom cartons with or without prefolding, double-wall cartons with single and double folding, partition cartons, four- and six-corner collapsible cartons, and many other special cartons.

Faller employs more than 800 staff, and its customers include over 420 pharmaceutical companies. With its high production capacity, which alongside folding cartons includes 1.6 billion packaging inserts in Binzen and 900 million adhesive labels in Schopfheim, this SME is one of the market leaders in secondary packaging for the pharmaceutical industry in German-speaking countries. Faller is also a founder member of the Copapharm Europe sales alliance and Copaco resource-sparing packaging cooperation.