Packaging South Asia

Mumbai-based SP Ultraflex has achieved good success with its latest Roboslit dual turret slitter-rewinder in the past year. “In the last financial year, we achieved good sales,” says Biku Kohli, director of SP Ultraflex. “As always, it is a rewarding experience to see projections and estimates being substantiated on the floor, one after the other at the plants of leading flexible packaging companies.”

The winners of the Metpack Innovation Awards 2017 were presented their gold, silver and bronze trophies on the afternoon of 3 May 2017, at the Panorama room at the exhibition. Innovative content, cost savings and improved quality were the criteria against which the international jury from nine nations, chaired by Gernot Geldner, judged each of the 26 individual entries to this year's competition. The winner of the Gold Innovation Award was won by the Italian company PrintabLED for its high-performance UV-LED systems for paint and metal printing systems.

In India, the presence of counterfeits is specifically high in the FMCG packaged foods and pharmaceuticals sector. This is an issue that costs billions...

In the second half of February 2017, the Israel-based Landa Group and the Germany-based Altana Group announced the latter's acquisition of Landa’s metallography technology for an undisclosed consideration. First unveiled by Landa at its own stand at drupa 2016, the novel technology is claimed to be a sustainable alternative to foil-transfer processes, enabling metallization of graphics at up to half the cost of conventional foil stamping.

 

ABB today announced the acquisition of B&R, the largest independent provider focused on product- and software-based, open-architecture solutions for machine and factory automation worldwide. B&R, founded in 1979 by Erwin Bernecker and Josef Rainer, is headquartered in Eggelsberg, Austria, and employs more than 3,000 people, including about 1,000 R&D and application engineers. It operates across 70 countries, generating sales of more than US$ 600 million (2015/16) in the US$ 20 billion machine and factory automation market segment.

In contemporary times digital printing is the name of the game given its ability to offer ultimate solutions for flexible packaging, labels and decorative printing segments. The converting industry for long has been grappling with restricted availability of the right type of substrate supporting direct digital printing without prior priming and coating or surface treatment for that matter.

Avon Pacfo Services, a startup in the packaging and shipping materials segment, offers products and services to customers with big and small orders alike. Unlike most startups that go through a process of uphill task during the initial years, Avon Pacfo began on a strong note with adequate investment and infrastructure. The new venture is a division of Faridabad-based Avon Containers, a leading converter of corrugated shipping and packaging material, founded by Gaurav Agarwal, managing director of Avon Containers and  Himanshu Bhansali, former general manager at Umex Packaging.

Visitors to the Xeikon Café, taking place at Xeikon Headquarter in Lier, Belgium, were witness to a first look at Xeikons’ first UV inkjet press, the new Panther PX3000, designed for self-adhesive labels for specific applications such as health and beauty, household chemicals, industrial chemicals and industrial labels. Filip Weymans, marketing manager at Xeikon said, “The digital frontend, X-800, of the new press is what will separate it from the competition. It doesn’t matter if a faster press is available in the market because the Panther can beat it with the frontend capabilities if not with its own speed.”

Sonepat-based A&S Labels is a leading manufacturer and exporter of metallized, filmic, barcode, adhesive and non-adhesive labels. The company is a prime label supplier to pharma, FMCG, cosmetic, durables and liquor companies. A&S is also a leading producer and supplier of holographic strips. In the past year, A&S enhanced its capacity considerably with the installation of a Mark Andy Performance Series P5 narrow web flexo press at its 20,000 square foot plant in Rai. To go with the new press, a Rotoflex VSI330 slitter rewinder and inspection system featuring a Nikka 100% inspection system was also installed.

Koji Suzuki, the manager of overseas sales for Konica Minolta's production and industrial print for the region, spoke at Gulf Print & Pack about the new Accurio branding of the company's digital printing products and solutions. There are four types of Accurio solutions ranging from the Konica Minolta digital production press, such as the C2060L and C2070 presses, that are known as Accurio Print to the Accurio Jet consisting right now of the KM1 inkjet press. Accurio Pro solutions include workflows and the company's color management that links up the already inbuilt measuring capability of its machines to the cloud.