Is the high price of energy getting you down? Are you finding print buyers less willing to ship pallets of printed product too far out of town because of rising transportation costs? Like you, Rickard Bindery is experiencing the same trend, however with a notable product exception: small format, miniature and pharmaceutical folding.
A lot of small format printing value fits on a pallet. No matter the price of diesel or gas, we’re finding our small format, miniature and pharmaceutical clients are still more than happy to ship product cross country.
Pharmaceutical Inserts/Onserts:
The FDA regulates the font size and overall readability of the pharmaceutical insert (PI), while the drug manufactures package size regulates the final folded size of the PI. So, two forces converge to govern production decisions. The necessary manufacturing components to navigate the production process are:
- The ability to print on 33#, 30#, and 27t# offset stocks.
- Increasingly, the capacity to handle larger press sheets.
- Pharmaceutical folders that are designed for Right Turn Angle (RTA) folds, producing the patented folds with as many as 90 -120 panels with glue.
PI’s that are designed to be kept closed with permanent glue are typically manufactured with blank panels. This ensures that when the product is opened, despite the fact that paper fibers will tear, copy will not be damaged or unreadable. Furthermore, permanent glue provides the greatest bond, which reduces the chance of opening or jamming during the high-speed inserting/onserting process.
PIs, Commercial Print & Attaching:
Millions of pharmaceutical inserts are created to help sell specific medical treatments. However, creating the physical PI is only half the battle; attaching it onto collateral material is the other half. How will the PI and carrier interact? Do you want the PI inside a pocket, or on the outside of a saddle stitched book or perhaps at the center of an iron cross folded collateral piece? Here are some attaching tips to keep in mind:
- PI thickness should largely guide your marketing decisions. 1/4-inch thick PIs are difficult to incorporate inside pieces that fold over them. Thinner PIs, measuring up to 1/8-inch thick, make better affixing candidates because of increased versatility in subsequent manufacturing operations.
- Make sure your carrier has enough body to hold the PI. Carrier pieces that are at least 7pts are popular because they provide a good base to hold the insert and offer enough thickness to help hide oils contained within ez-release glue.
- RTA folds are not the only ones on the market. If your client has selected a different fold, make sure it has a closed edge so it can be automatically fed from an affixing unit.
- Don’t forget to factor in packaging. Not all quotes are created equal. Packaging PIs into rows with chipboard may be acceptable for some applications. Others may require special trays that are then individually shrink wrapped.
There’s big money in pharmaceutical printed products. If you wish to learn how pharmaceutical folding coupled with attaching can help your printing top and bottom lines, please call Jim Egan at 312-243-6300 or email him at jegan@rickardbindery.com.
The Rickard Advantage
Do you have a miniature folding product that requires ez-release glue as opposed to the permanent glue that is standard for a Pharmaceutical Insert? A common product that fits this description is a Terms & Conditions sheet common in credit card offerings. Rickard’s development team recently implemented a glue detection system that guarantees glue on the product. For more information on this system and how it can benefit you check out our press release here.
|
