Products from the medicinal branch comprise 95 percent of Palladio’s sales.

From Vicenza, Palladio Industrie Grafiche Cartotechniche S.p.A., as they are called today, took control first of the local Italian market, and finally the whole world.

Today Palladio, part of the renowned Copapharm Group since 1997, prints packaging, labels, packing slips and films for all of the pharmaceutical multinationals. Products for the medicinal branch comprise 95 percent of sales.

Perforated Packing Slips
The secret behind the company’s success, which commissioned in 1996 as worldwide first printing house a computer-to-film system, is the innovative products. “Together with the customers”, says Operations Manager Livio Padrin, “we are always finding and developing new solutions.” For example, the recently conceived packing slip which is pre-folded in a roll. Soon Palladio will also be printing perforated – and hence tear-off – packing slips, with one part for the doctor and the other for the patient.

These perforated packing slips are merely one example of products which Palladio will print in the future on the new web offset Concepta printing press with Q74 sheeter and Uniplus 520 light paper stacker. The four-color printing press with bump turn for double-sided printing is the first from Muller Martini in the entire Palladio Group. In addition to the headquarters in Dueville (160 employees), this comprises four other plants in the two Italian cities Thiene (45 employees) and Pisa (155 employees) as well as in Serbia (45 employees) and Ireland (25 employees).

From the right: Machine Operator Dario Baghin, Sales Manager Andrea Padrin, Operations Manager Livio Padrin, Manager Pressroom GianPaolo Mello Grand as well as Giovanni Bertuzzo and Andrea Pirola from Muller Martini Italy with the new Concepta at Palladio in Dueville.

250 Meters per Minute
The evaluation process went on almost 24 months before the Concepta finally began production in February this year.
“We carried out countless tests with our products on several machines”, says Livio Padrin. “Then we came to the conclusion that the Concepta is the most reliable and the fastest, as well as being quicker and more comfortable to changeover.”

“Naturally the new Concepta was a big challenge for our machine operators at the beginning”, says the Manager of the Pressroom GianPaolo Mello Grand. “But today, in comparison to our two other machines, we are producing at triple the speed – at 250 meters compared to 80 meters per minute.”

In-line Production Roll/Signature
The speed, however, is merely one of the big advantages which Andrea Padrin, responsible for sales of packing slips, mentions. “A second important factor in favor of the new Concepta is the in-line production roll/signature. We used to have to do this in two steps.”

Today packing slips are getting lighter. “We are already printing 30 percent of our volume”, says Andrea Padrin, “on 40-gram paper. Grammage has dropped constantly over recent years due to the increasing amount of information on the packing slips, while the slips themselves have increased in size.”

The four-color Concepta with Q74 sheeter and Uniplus 520 light paper stacker is the first printing press from Muller Martini in the Palladio Group.