Martin Automatic has been in the Indian market for many years now and although they had their own share of difficulties initially, printers were quick to understand the value of investing in good auxillary machines apart from their regular investments in main printing machines, according to Hope Hu, regional manager, Asia Pacific of Martin Automatic. Martin Automatic provides automated splicing with precise tension control for roll-to-roll processing.
“Owing to the stiff competition and also the rising material costs, label and packaging converters are increasingly concentrating on reducing machine downtime and material waste due to the manual roll changes. With automatic nonstop splicer and rewinder, they can run their machines continuously and achieve more stable quality. So customers are now considering retrofitting their presses with our solutions as well as going for new presses with automatic roll-changing systems sourced from other equipment manufacturers and suppliers like us.”
According to Hu, with its experience of close to five decades and its focus on automatic splicing unwinds, automatic transfer rewinds and tension control systems, Martin Automatic has painstakingly created its own space over the years and earned customer respect in the process.
One of the main challenges for Martin Automatic in India has been its price compared to other cheaper competitors. However, Hu thinks differently. He says, “We claim that our machines can give you peace of mind and uninterrupted service for ten years. However, I have met customers in India who have been using our machines for over 25 years and who have hardly had the need for any direct service from us. It is difficult to measure the efficiency and consistency of our machines in the long run in terms of money.”
According to Hu, Labelexpo India 2016 has seen a relatively lesser number of visitors compared to its previous edition held at Pragati Maidan. However, he seemed quite content with the footfall generated during the show as he thought the overall quality of visitors was much better than usually seen at Pragati Maidan. “We are very happy with the response received here this time because time wastage was minimal and we got to interact with a lot of existing customers as well as speak to new prospective ones.”
Martin Automatic has made several installations across the country with one installation currently underway at a facility of an Indian milk major. At Labelexpo 2016, Martin signed a two-machine order with Kap Cones, based in New Delhi, with an MBS automatic butt splicer and LRD automatic transfer rewinder, which will be shipped in 2017.
