Hapa AG

Beat Rupp
About: Beat Rupp - CEO

Hapa Services generates over 50% of turnover. The department features a regional setup, with close ties to regional partners and customers and a focus on product updates and promotions.

1. Hapa's industrial presence is all over the globe across the seven continents. What strategy of networking do you implement to ensure high-quality services in every region?

Actually, Hapa, world leader of on demand printing systems for the pharmaceutical sector, has yet to install an in-house printing system in Antarctica, so our global base is limited to six continents.

To date, Hapa Services generates over 50% of turnover.  The department features a regional setup, with close ties to regional partners and customers and a focus on product updates and promotions. Our  Product Life Cycle and Consumables teams are responsible for the management of Hapa’s parts, services, inks, and print-mat portfolios.

Concurrent projects include expansion of 1st-level support to 24/7. Our aim for our clients is zero unexpected-downtime.

2. You launched two new innovative technologies last year,  Hapa 862 and Redcube Plus. Have you received a positive response from your clients to these products? Do you envision the demand for such products increasing in the future?

Hapa launched several innovative and award-winning technologies last year:
Hapa 862, an in-house, CMYK/4-spot-color printing solution for any foil or label-printing application. The UV DOD piezo inkjet printing system is scalable so that it future-proofs production lines. It complies with the stringent requirements of the pharma segment and meets the challenges of serialization with high-resolution results.Winner of an iF Design Award 2016.
“redcube plus”,  a UV DOD piezo inkjet printing module, is scalable from 1 to 6 spot colors or CMYK + 2 colors. Print-head maintenance and print-head flushing is fully automated. Optional pinning stations allow color-on-color printing.
Hapa HMI, offers unsurpassed ease of operability. It combines function and flexibility with user-centered design and HTML5 web technology. The award-winning, multi-touch printing and control systems are easily integrated into complex lines. Navigation is workflow-oriented and scalable up to plant management. Platform independent, the HMI can run on the leading browsers and can be upgraded to specific customer needs. Winner of iF Design Award 2015, Red Dot Award 2015, and a German Design Award Special Mention 2016.
Blow Fill Seal Printing Unit incorporates an up- and downstream conveyor. Direct print is provided by an integrated, single-color redcube, our compact UV DOD piezo inkjet printing module. Product position is controlled for print accuracy, and a UV-LED curing unit ensures the instant curing of the ink.Winner of a Medicine Maker Innovation Award 2015.

The interest in our new products and systems has been overwhelmingly positive. Hapa expects demand to increase within traditional markets, Europe and the US, but as a well in emerging markets and new applications for the pharmaceutical industry.

3. Would a machine like UV Hybrid be more economic than the purchase of both UV Flexo and UV DOD? How is it different in its specifications from these two products? Is it just a combination of the two or have improvisations also been made? 

The beauty of the Hybrid, a Hapa best seller, is that the client benefits from two technologies already assimilated into one system. It answers economic and flexibility challenges in tandem, making it a more economical purchase. Currently the Hybrid is interfacing with all blister machines. It is smart integration.

Like the two technologies comprising the Hybrid, the system is available top-mounted and roll to roll. The Hybrid can be retrofitted by Hapa or, via an OEM, fulling integrated into a blister packaging line.

The Hybrid delivers added benefits: it can be run as one system, and each technology can be operated separately, UV flexo for large batch run, and the UV DOD for micro runs.  It can be used as a two-color printer as well.

In the pharma world, there is no room for “improvisation.” All Hapa systems are compliant with GAMP 5, GMP, and other industrial norms and expectations.

4. What ideology was behind the advent of your own ink brand, Hapa Ink? Has it been a beneficial addition to your offered solutions and services?  

Behind the start of Hapa Ink in 2013 lay the opportunity to purchase anexperienced ink supplier to several OEM’s.

Hapa Ink develops, produces, and delivers inks designed to exact specifications and volumes, no matter how small. The UV DOD inks are currently in use to print on plastic, aluminum, and labeling materials of all types. The performance of Hapa Ink’s white inks is unsurpassed. Since the division’s launch,UV-DOD customers have access to aone-stop service: reliable Hapa reliable UV-DOD inks to use on reliable Hapa UV DOD printing systems.

5. From the understanding of Hapa's "Lean Process", it is clear that you only retain the value-adding processes and discard all other productions that cause waste of time and resources. Would you say this method should be adopted by every industry to optimise cost-efficiency and time management?

Lean processes should be adopted by anyone interested in optimizing cost-efficiency and time management. Hapa, by cutting time and resource waste, is able to pass savings on to customers. To those customers who have themselves adapted lean production or are in the process of switching to lean production, Hapa sales and project management teams bring the added benefit of “lean knowhow”, an inside knowledge of the approach to customer needs and strategical thinking.

6. Is it a challenge to deploy "green production" in today's modern world and be conscious about sustainability as well as the minimization of environmental harm?

Operating lean and practicing 5S is part of Hapa’s DNA. We also take great pride in the fact that our products and services help customers streamline their processes and production. In-house printing systems have many benefits, from increasing production flexibility to improving time to market. Customers have reported savings by the reduction of up to 80% material waste. Hapa systems can be either integrated into existing systems or into OEM lines, or run separately in a late stage customization capacity.