Ahmednagar-based flexo prepress house Rajendra Arts installed Xeikon Thermoflexx 30 in the last week of September. The prepress bureau is managed by Rajendra Joshi who comes from a family with a long history in the printing business. The family has been associated with the printing business since the 1920s when Joshi’s grandfather started a small printing unit. With the installation of the Xeikon imager, Rajendra Arts has ushered in digital technology. Currently the company is supplying plates to printers who are in the corrugated and plastics segments such as carry bags and poly bags. In addition to Ahmednagar, these
customers are based in places like Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad.
Before the new digital set-up was installed, Rajendra Arts was employing two Agfa Avantra 30 imagesetters since 2006. Also in use was a conventional 42 x 60- inch Indian made processing unit which was installed way back in 2004.
“There are multiple reasons why we got a Xeikon Thermoflexx 30. However, the most important one is that we wanted to stay competitive by adopting the latest technology. Our conventional set-up was more than a decade old and it was time for us to take a technological leap,” says Joshi. The cost of conventional plates is rising, availability of film is becoming difficult and getting spares and services is getting hard. These significant factors too were reasons why Joshi went in for digital technology. Additionally, Joshi feels, with flexo printers upgrading their technology rapidly in India, flexo prepress players will also need to subsequently upgrade their set-up as well.
“Our move is also influenced by what we see as a huge growth potential in flexo,” he argues. The digital set-up was supplied by Malhotra Graphics which is the representative for Xeikon. Joshi has had a long relationship with Malhotra Graphics and the new project was also smooth. In addition to the Xeikon Thermoflexx 30, Malhotra Graphics also supplied an exposure unit, in-line washer, finisher and dryer. Packz with 3D module and StudioRIP software were also provided by Malhotra Graphics.
Although these are still early days, Joshi has had good feedback from his customers. Currently the new digital set-up is servicing printers in the packaging space and the company has plans to venture into more sophisticated areas with new technology at its disposal.
Focus on labels
The geographical location of Ahmednagar is such that it is in close proximity to two important cities in Maharashtra – Pune and Aurangabad. Both these cities have big label printers and Joshi wants to tap the label market as the company gradually adopts the new technology. “It is not even a month since we installed the new unit and we are getting to know the technology and learn as much as possible to fully optimize its operation. We now want to tap the label printers in the region. There are some significant players in Pune and Aurangabad. Even Ahmednagar has a few small label printers. Our old set-up did not allow us to exploit this market but with the new set-up we are very optimistic about our growth in labels,” Joshi states.
