India’s leading manufacturer of web offset presses, Manugraph tied up with Italy’s Carraro, to make advanced gearless CI flexo presses at drupa. This became public knowledge with Manugraph’s marketing arm Multigraph Machinery Company and Carint meeting prospects jointly at the C&C stand at K. The full technology transfer agreement signed at drupa by Pradeep Shah, managing director of Manugraph, and Nicoletta Carraro, chief executive officer of C&C Flexo Carraro & Carint, envisions manufacturing at Manugraph’s Kolhapur factory. Multigraph Machinery Company Limited (MMCL) will market the presses under the Manugraph Carraro brand.
Carraro wide web CI flexo presses have widths from 800 mm to 2.6 m and run at speeds up to 800 m a minute. “Initially, for the first few machines, the total print group will be imported from Italy. Only unwind and rewind turrets, heat systems and heat tunnels will be made in India. After the first few machines, Manugraph will take over the complete manufacturing of the presses,” says Hiten Mehta, president, MMCL.
Expected to begin by November 2016, the first machine should reach the market by May 2017. Not only the Indian market but also the overseas market will be addressed.“We will begin to export immediately after we begin manufacturing if we get orders from overseas. Convertors in the mid- to upper-mid segments will be our target,” says Mehta.
Mehta says that Manugraph wants to target the fast-growing packaging industry in India that is increasingly looking at wide web CI flexo for printing on thinner and more extensible materials. “The building of state-of-the-art gearless CI flexo presses in India will help customers not only save foreign exchange but also have the backing of Manugraph’s extensive expertise in engineering and reputation.”
