FormerFab has dedicated itself to the development and production of forming shoulders for the packaging industry. The company is now celebrating its 20th anniversary and can look back on a successful development.
The history of FormerFab began even before the company was founded. As a university employee, Dr Henry Drut came into contact with the subject of moulded shoulders at an early stage. He was so enthusiastic about this field that he began to develop a Calculation programme for forming shoulder geometry which still forms the basis of the company's economic success today.
In 1995, he joined GVL - Gesellschaft für Verpackungstechnik und -logistik mbH and took over the management in 1996. In 1996 and 1997, he developed a calculation method for forming shoulder geometry within GVL and then implemented this method in a calculation programme. Until the Foundation of FormerFab in 2004 Together with other partners, he developed manufacturing techniques for his calculated moulded shoulders. After developing the calculation programme, Dr Drut quickly realised that the production capacities that could be purchased from outside were no longer good enough to make further progress with the topic of moulded shoulders and that the to turn calculated moulded shoulders into reality with dimensional accuracy.
Since 2010, the company has concentrated exclusively on the development and manufacture of moulded shoulders. Until then, engineering services from other packaging-specific topics were also part of the daily work. It is important to note that FormerFab is not a spin-off of TU Dresden and is financially independent of funding.
While GVL was initially responsible for moulded shoulders, FormerFab was founded in 2004 specifically for the production of moulded shoulders. In 2010, all employees were then transferred from GVL to FormerFab. Since then, the Development of moulding shoulders under the direction of FormerFab took place. The company has been trading as FormerFab GmbH since 2018.
A lot has also happened in terms of the number of employees over the last 20 years: FormerFab started in 2004 with just one employee at the beginning, then two later in the year (exclusively CNC millers); at that time, the development of moulding shoulders was still taking place at GVL with 3 other employees. Today, the company employs a proud 24 employees, including 4 working students, who contribute significantly to the company's success. And the trend is rising.
Well-known customers include packaging machine manufacturers such as Syntegon (formerly Bosch), Wolf Verpackungsmaschinen, Inever from Spain and Universal Pack from Italy, as well as numerous globally recognised brands and other packaging machine manufacturers.
FormerFab GmbH has more than 30 patent applications. One of FormerFab's particular highlights is the patent application submitted by Dr Henry Drut In-house developed mathematical calculation programme for forming shoulders. Only two other companies in the world use similar programmes, which were developed at universities and then made available to companies. This programme enables extremely precise work and gives FormerFab a very broad and high-quality market position. The programme makes it possible, for example, to develop and produce forming shoulders for applications with highly sensitive flexible papers. At its site in Freital, the company produces forming shoulders ranging from sizes for the smallest bags for analytical equipment to forming shoulders for huge oil pipelines and supplies these to customers all over the world.
Source: FormerFab
