Bähren Druck: Innovation and quality with a dynamic team, supported by Media Check


As specialist for pharmaceutical packaging, especially leaflets, labels and combiners the company Bähren Druck has grown over the last years strongly. The owner and general manager Walter Bähren has engaged a young team of engineers in printing technology top manage the company. Together they have grown the company to one of the leading partners oft he pharmaceutical customers!

New products 2in1, 3in1 oder t[w]o tear®

Innovation in leaflets?! Baehren Druck shows that even in such a mature market innovation is possible. Outserts 2in1 or 3in1 or t[w]o tear® are accepted and integrated by customers in their packaging to be conform to the readability guidelines:

  • Outserts 2in1 and 3in1 are two or three leaflets which are printed folded and then sealed in one printed sheet. When the seal is opened, the leaflet „fells apart“ in two or three leaflets. The leaflet can be spent as one item into the folding box.
  • t[w]o tear ® consists of two or more products, which are produced on one printed sheet. If torn apart at the perforation, the leaflets are like a book with several pages. Information can be addressed to different groups (doctors, pharmacists) or in different languages – in only one step!

Bähren’s quality policy: In process, instead of just there!

The requirements of a product are checked carefully at the beginning, unique identification of products is defined to assure retracability from material to finished products and vice versa. Documentation of all steps in production, used material and checks is electronically written and archived. Additionally Bähren checks every product by camera inspection! To assure this high level of quality the processes and employees are qualified by validation and trainings.

PDF-comparison integrated in prepress workflow

The customer requirements of pharmaceutical quality contain of course also the assurance, that the customer approved text is really and correctly printed. On the other hand the files are prepared for various printing processes in the prepress department and composed in several ups on the printing plates.

Bähren uses and trusts the system Media Check of tec4check. Integrated in the automated prepress workflow the internal files are checked automatically against the reference PDF-files (Connectivity Modul). As soon as both files are written in the dedicated directories, so-called hotfolders, the comparison starts automatically. Pixel by Pixel the reference and the sample files are checked. Any deviations which may occur are then checked by the operators. He is guided from one deviation to the other. You can always see how many deviations you have handled or are still open. At the end there is a PDF-report about the check.
If no deviations are found, Media Check sends a status to the workflow that the job can continue.
In a dash board you can always see the status of the workflow and the checks. So every user can check if some files or information are missing or if the check has been initiated or done already. Transparency to the users without interference of any administrator!

Printed sheets compared against PDF-reference

Media Check is a client-server-based print inspection system, so that all jobs can be seen and handled from all clients. Consequently, jobs can be created already in the prepress department, the scanning can be done on the job floor and the evaluation is done by quality department in their office.
Again, here the scanned sheets are compared against one or more PDF-references – pixel by pixel. Deviations can be evaluated step by step. The users are guided through the check. The checks are documented in a PDF-report in conformity to FDA 21 part 11. Should there are deviations identical on several ups, the system allows the evaluation of all ups at the same time – just in one click.

Media Check Preview and perspectives

Media Check will be developed shortly. The new version 3.1 is launched in spring.