Continuously striving for excellence, Bengaluru-based Print Factory has recently upgraded its prepress facility with Kodak’s Flexcel NX Wide hybrid system. Starting off with a single-color offset and screen press, today Print Factory has extended its production activities to three units distributed across 40,000 sq. ft area, corroborating the signage, commercial and packaging business. With plans to increase efficiency and customer satisfaction, the company has chosen to invest in Kodak’s Flexcel NX Wide System to meet the demands of its broad client base, including producers of high-end corrugated cartons. The new addition will enhance the visual appearance of corrugated boards by enabling them to print on the various grades of liners.
Print Factory, a long-time user of Kodak technology, overhauled its prepress operations with investments in Kodak thermal CtP technology powered by PRINERGY Workflow solutions. “The flexo technology from Kodak has been a real cornerstone of our service,” said Sudhir MK, chief executive officer of Print Factory. Referring to research reports, he believes, the Indian packaging industry is expected to reach US$ 32 billion by 2020. So, according
to a recent McKinsey report, there will be a ten-fold increase in India’s middle-class population by 2025, which will further trigger the consumption of packaging materials.
Recently, to fuel print productivity on the liner sheets, Print Factory has installed two used 4-color offset presses—KBA-Planeta and Mitsubishi—and integrated them with Kodak Flexcel NX Wide Hybrid system. With a maximum plate size of 42 x 60 in (1067 mm
x 1524 mm), the Flexcel NX Wide System accommodates the large layouts of these two acquired presses (Planeta – 37 x 52 inches and Mitsubishi – 44 x 64 inches). With hybrid technology, the Flexcel NX can serve as a single solution for production of digital flexo, DITR films for analog flexo plates and thermal offset plates.
Future plans
With the new installation, Sudhir plans to enter flexible packaging in the near future. Today, the company has battery of four offset presses, three digital presses by Konica Minolta for commercial jobs, and six digital presses for signs and display business. Inclining his interest towards UV print, he confirms to add another 6-color + UV press in the unit.
Efficient large-format plate production
Flexcel NX Wide System is a complete solution for digital flexo including software and plate-making processes. The newly introduced Flexcel NXC plates have been developed specifically to cater to the corrugated post-print market. Through the use of a unique printing dot profile and Kodak Digicap NX Patterning technology, it creates a micro-texturized plate surface to transfer ink more efficiently to the substrate; the plates enable significant improvements in highlight reproduction and printed densities without the need to increase the ink volumes. Besides, it also offers print buyers the advantage of flexibility and cost-effectiveness of flexo as well the print quality they expect from the gravure process.
