Packaging South Asia

The Paktek advanced auto folder-gluer GM-1700 has been installed at Lege Opakowania Sp. z o.o. based in Poland. The fully automatic GM-1700 is a multiple-point auto folder-gluer designed to achieve high quality products. The maximum working size is 1,700 x 1,100 mm. To be built with the standard auto PLC positioning system, short changeover time and a procedure to recall the previous working data can be expected. GM-1700 is capable of making straight-line, double-side, crash-lock bottom, 4-corner and 6-corner cartons made of duplex boards and A, B and E-flute corrugated boards. So far, three sets of the auto folder-gluer model GM-1050 with 4-corner / 6-corner function, GM-1600 and GM-1700 and one set of auto flute laminator PH-A-1600 have joined Lege’s production line. In the near future, one set of the two piece in one folder-gluer will be installed.

Xaar has appointed Neil Hopkinson as director of 3D Printing. Hopkinson, who will join Xaar in March 2016, is the inventor of the transformational High Speed Sintering (HSS) technology. He brings with him 19 years’ experience in additive manufacturing technology gained at the University of Sheffield, Loughborough University, De Montfort University, 3D Systems and the University of Nottingham.

Xaar is pushing the adoption of inkjet printing beyond ceramics where it has been so successful. Ceramics contributes substantially to industrial sector revenues which represent roughly 65% of Xaar’s £100 million turnover but packaging is gaining ground. The numbers reflect Xaar’s metamorphosis – packaging’s contribution has gone from 10 to 11% in H1 2014 to 15% in H1 2015, and as Edwards confirms, “We’re growing the packaging sector, especially Direct to Shape (DTS) digitally printed labels.”

Capital Graphics is an Indian distributor of highly specialized equipment and consumables that are used by leading digital and flexo printers, diemakers and packaging converters and supplied by its principals such as Cito, Cutlite, Ecosystems, Hunkeler and Tresu. Among its principals are the Switzerland-based Hunkeler which provides the unwinds and rewinds for the majority of webfed digital presses around the world as well as modules that intelligently process the machine readable marks on digitally printed documents and webs for perforation, folding, authenticating, slitting and sheeting as well as collating and binding. Hunkeler equipment is already installed on the several web fed digital presses in the country that are being used to print books, transactional and mail order documents. Patrick Lehman based in Hunkeler’s Hong Kong office and who is quite familiar to digital printers across India and Asia was at the Capital Graphics stand at Pamex. Roberto Croci of Cito was at the show as well.

Miraj Multicolor, a leading offset folding carton converter has a state-of-the-art factory located at Sukher Industrial Area at Udaipur in Rajasthan. The company is part of the large Miraj Group which is active in tobacco, FMCG, real estate, hospitality, and stationery and printing.

Flint Group announced on 20 November 2015 that it has acquired Xeikon, one of the leading digital solutions providers to the packaging and commercial...

While the Indian label industry is not used to the flattening of its growth curve which it is currently experiencing, there are several discernible trends. The first trend is the increased sophistication of both the presses and the finishing equipment being installed. For instance, just as Barcom’s third Mark Andy Performance Series P5 label press is being installed, it has also ordered a bi-directional Rotoflex for slitting rewinding and improved inspection for pharmaceutical labels.

 

Demand for higher technology in finishing is also being felt by industry leader Prati in India with the installation of a Sun bidirectional slitter-rewinder with a Nikka inspection system at Sel Jagat Printers in Sivakasi. Several other Prati installs have taken place in recent months for its slitting rewinding and inspection systems.

The Rako Group, based in Witzhave in Germany, has purchased two HP Indigo 20000 digital presses and nine HP Indigo WS6800 digital presses, making it the largest labels and packaging deal in HP Indigo’s history, according to HP. The purchase builds on Rako’s existing fleet of HP Indigo digital presses and expands its multi-press, multi-site labels and packaging digital offerings while providing increased capacity to meet customer demands.

 

At the last LMAI conference held in Jaipur in July 2015, although the label equipment suppliers and the printers were not so sure about the exact growth rate achieved by the Indian label industry, there seemed to be an industry wide consensus that there is a positive growth – that the industry is generally on the path of expansion and modernization along with sustainability. One of the ambitious young label printers in the Delhi NCR and director of Sai Com Codes Flexoprint Harish Gupta was there in Jaipur but in hindsight takes exception to this general optimism. Having shifted his label plant from Delhi to a bigger plant just North of the city in Sonepat, Gupta says the industry growth is slowing down and not growing at the pace it should have not even at the rate that he himself expected. According to Gupta, the government policies are not helping either.