Dolphin Inks, an indigenous manufacturer of water-based flexo inks, doles out over 250 tons of inks a month pan India. Majority of the presses displayed at the IndiaCorr Expo produced printed samples using Dolphin inks. At IPP stall in the expo, we had a brief discussion with Kumar Jaikrishna Deshpande and Harjit Singh Talwar, directors at Dolphin Inks, who spoke at length about their products.
Being pioneers in the field, Dolphin still faces many challenges. Talwar says, “High-speed automatic and semi-automatic presses require different inks in order to run smoothly at the press. Different kinds of ink formulation help to meet the demands. At present, water based inks are supplied for wide printing applications, including paper-based labels, napkins, cups, notebooks and corrugated boxes due to the inks’ fast changeover, pollution free and safety features.
During the initial phase, there was hardly any corrugated box manufacturer that would print at the units. After concluding successful trials of water-based inks on Mark Andy press, Dolphin sold its products and technically supported many manufacturers to initiate the print process apart from box-making process at their units, which eventually reduced transportation costs as well as dependency on other vendors for print.
Still today, Dolphin supports its clients by organizing various workshops on inks. The company also participates in events to remain in touch with its existing clients. Speaking about its competitors, Talwar says, “Any entrant supplies ink at the lowest price. However, a convertor should focus on the performance of inks rather than the cost. Dolphin Inks has good mileage and can produce more printed sheets than any other inks available in the market.”
