Over 150 participants from Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America attended the Packaging Days, which were staged by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) in mid-April. Modern folding carton production requires high efficiency, short makeready times, surface finishing for differentiation, and integrated and reliable production. Under the HEI End banner, visitors saw in practical demonstrations what solutions Heidelberg offers specifically for the pharmaceutical and food industries. On show was the interaction of technology, services, and consumables to achieve high efficiency and reliable production. A focal point was low migration quality (LMQ) – i.e. manufacturing packaging for foodstuffs in such a way that no harmful substances come into contact with the actual product. Dr. Monika Huber from Mondelez International (Kraft Foods R & D Inc., Munich) explained LMQ requirements of producers of branded goods on the supplier and manufacturing industries. Particular emphasis was given to the careful selection of suitable inks, coatings, auxiliary materials, other additives, and an integrated approach to production. Michael Fuchs, Production Manager at Model PrimePac AG in Switzerland, described the practical use of LMQ in food packaging production. He explained how food packaging, a particularly sensitive product, can be produced successfully and also referred to the associated drawbacks such as higher costs, poorer drying, and higher dot gain. Systematic implementation of low-migration applications in the production process is now standard at Model PrimePac AG and allows reliable and economical production.

Visitors to the Packaging Days saw LMQ production on a Speedmaster XL 162 five-color press with coating unit. For the first time, the Dymatrix 106 Pro CSB die cutter showed the new quick-action clamping system in stripping and blanking stations, which enables straightforward, fast, and repeat-accurate settings. Depending on the job, this can cut makeready times in both stations by up to five minutes. This is a big advantage particularly in the pharmaceutical sector, where short runs are normal.

The Speedmaster XL 75 Duo demonstrated the production of a pharmaceutical folding carton with security features, surface finishing with the FoilStar cold foil module, and dual-coating applications with spot coating. Users can employ these types of distinctive features to expand their portfolio and stand out from the crowd on a fiercely competitive market. The Varimatrix 82 CS die cutter is the first half-format die cutter with stripping station that fully harnesses the Speedmaster XL 75 Duo folding carton format of 75 x 605 millimeters (2.95 x 23.82 in). As a result of the larger format, it was possible to process an additional row of repeats in the example demonstrated and thus increase productivity by 33 percent. The Varimatrix 82 was unveiled at drupa 2012 and numerous well-known pharmaceutical packaging manufacturers have since opted for this efficient solution.

Participants made extensive use of sessions with experts to find out the ins and outs of topics such as remote monitoring, Saphira consumables, color and quality management with Prinect Image Control, and Prinect Inspection Control including inkjet.

The previous day highlighted the potential of the Prinect Packaging Workflow, which fully integrates all the process steps in folding carton manufacture – from job management and production to shipping – and thus ensures material savings, production reliability, and precise repeatability. The benefits were shown to participants by evaluating the production results from a live demonstration. Various workshops offered the opportunity to increase know-how – the topics “Management information”, “Packaging development”, and “Color management, focusing on replacing spot colors with multicolor” were particularly popular.

New quicklock frame cuts makeready times for the Dymatrix die cutter by up to five minutes

For pharmaceutical packaging in particular, it should be possible to ensure maximum productivity in stripping the tiniest pieces of waste with fine contours – and to do so even in complex layouts.

The Dymatrix 106 Pro CSB is now available with the new quicklock frame for stripping and blanking stations. Together with the patented register system in all stations and the quicklock frame, the Dymatrix raises the bar in precision, makeready times, and reproducibility, with the new frames enabling much higher speeds.

The Dymatrix 106 exhibited at the Packaging Days is also equipped with the chase changer unveiled at drupa 2012, which cuts makeready times for frequent job changes significantly and further increases the productivity of the Dymatrix. After using the changer, this can be swung out to the side to save space, thus enabling operators to retain their freedom of movement.

The Diana X 80 folding carton gluing machine, which impresses with its high speed and short makeready times, was also featured. The machine’s high potential was also described by Jon Drennan, Operations Director at Chesapeake in Leicester in the UK, which has been successfully using the Diana X 80 with Braille module and Inspection Control module for pharmaceutical packaging for over a year. Drennan says the new line replaces two and a half of the machines previously used. He singled out the high embossing quality and flexibility of the Diana Braille module for particular praise. He uses the Diana X Inspection Control module for what he refers to as “Japanese quality” – defective packaging is ejected automatically and with utmost reliability. This enables suppliers to deliver batches where all the folding cartons are 100 percent free of defects without having to resort to complex manual sorting.