At Plastindia 2018, Manugraph was at the joint Multigraph stand that represents several leading Indian packaging equipment manufacturers such as Perfect Graphics, Kohli Industries, Multitec and Manugraph itself. Manugraph, as we have written earlier, has tied up with C&C Flexo in Italy for the manufacture of wide web CI flexo presses at its factories in Kohlapur. The first Manugraph C&C press, an 8-color gearless CI press which was imported in CKD condition is under installation at Osho Packaging in Haridwar and should be running in April.
The plan according to Manugraph’s managing director Pradeep Shah is to import the first three presses in CKD condition and increasingly build up the Indian manufacturing capability so that the fifth machine is completely built in Kohlapur. Shah explained that the plan is to initially make 8-color gearless CI flexo presses with a width of 1.3 meters and a printing speed of 400 meters a minute. He added that while the agreement with C&C Flexo allots Manugraphmanufactured presses marketing rights for certain territories, including Africa and the Middle East, marketing in North America will be jointly undertaken with Carraro. Shah is optimistic about the CI flexo press market in the country which current imports more than a dozen presses each year.
At the Plastindia exhibition in Gandhinagar, Luigi Carraro, the president of C&C Flexo, explained to us that he had been searching for an Indian manufacturer for several years and when he saw Manugraph’s factories in Kohlapur and met its management, he felt that he had found the right partner to manufacture the Carraro CI presses in Asia. Showing his impressive catalog of flexible films and laminates printed on C&C presses, Carraro shared his belief that, “The joint project with Manugraph has fantastic prospects in India, because CI is proven in India.”
Carraro spoke about the large installed base of C&C flexo presses since 1950, which number about 3500 including both stack and CI configurations. He explained that in Italy
there is demand only for very high speed CI flexo presses that are 1.6 meters wide and running at 650 and 800 meters wide. His company has recently installed a 10-color CI flexo press running at 550 meters a minute. Saying that he was leaving for China after the exhibition where he has an agreement to first manufacture stack flexo presses, Carraro was also looking forward to come back to India for the commissioning of the first C&C Flexo-Manugraph press at Haridwar.
Attilio Carraro founded Carraro in 1945-46, which initially sold both gravure and flexo presses. Attilio Carraro is considered the builder of the first flexo press in Italy in 1950 and he is also credited with the central impression cylinder concept. His son Luigi Carraro entered the business in 1973 and ran the company while his daughter Nicolleta Carraro took over its operations in 2008.
