Lanes South-East has purchased a GUK folder to help it cope with an increasing volume of pharmaceutical folding.
The Broadstairs company operates across a number of fields, one of which is healthcare and pharmaceutical where patient information leaflets are required. Among its customers is a producer of FFPS and P3 face masks where demand has soared during the pandemic.
The new machine will relieve the strain on two existing GUK folders. Managing director Wayne Yorath says: “Miniature folding is an important element of our product offering. We had purchased our existing two GUK machines as a secondhand product. They were beginning to show their age. To refurbish the machines now would have cost almost as much as a new one, so we decided to take the plunge and invest in the new piece of equipment. “This is a key part of our business, and we are picking up more and more pharmaceutical and similar work every week. Currently it’s expanding – at this moment we’ve got a 750,000 run going through the new machine.”
The GUK FA35 the company has installed is a six-plate machine designed to handle lightweight papers which can be a challenge on standard folding machines. This includes front air blasts to ensure clean sheet separation from a bottom fed suction feeder taking the sheets directly into the folding rollers.
The company prints down to 50gsm on a variety of litho and digital presses, led by a four-colour KBA Rapida 105 installed as a secondhand machine in 2015. It also has a fully equipped finishing department to cope with growing demand from the healthcare sector. Says Yorath: “Miniature folded leaflets are critical components for the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. In the pharma world they are legally bound to include a PIL with every pack of product they distribute, so if one supplier can’t deliver on time, they will seek an alternative producer. We were able to pick up a number of new clients in the last couple of years due to these reasons.
“We have a range of machines that we can use for varying sizes of miniature folding work – down to product as small as 15mm – for pharmaceutical leaflets, and we’re keeping them busy. That’s why we really needed the new machine. These leaflets are printed on paper weights as low as 50gsm, so proven technology, such as GUK which has an excellent reputation in the leaflet sector, is essential.”
The GUK was supplied by UK dealer M Partners. It has serviced the existing machines for some time. “It’s been a delight to work with Wayne and the team at Lanes Printers for over ten years now, providing service, spares and support for the existing GUK folders, so it’s especially pleasing to be able to provide them with this new machine,” says M Partners joint managing director Murray Lock.
“GUK products are particularly well known in the pharmaceutical packaging field, where high speed, accurate miniature folding, and inserting with tight tolerances, are a standard requirement for patient information leaflets.”
