The Screen Print Man

Value addition is the new norm. The advent of UV special effects has caught the imagination of creative minded offset and screen printers across Gujarat. Several printers (both offset and screen printers) have invested in screen printing machines exclusively to offer value addition, vis a vis, high end UV special effects, also termed - print decoration or print embellishment. Over to the vibrant Ahmedabad story of screen printers!

12 Sep 2014 | By Shripad Bhat

AHMEDABAD
Sustained growth in offset printing business is possible only with value addition through screen printing
Pravin Patel, MD, Shree Printwell Offset
 
Ahmedabad-based Shree Printwell Offset recently installed Grafica CamShell, to offer high end value addition in a big way. With this investment, the company now moves on a growth trajectory.
 
“We invested to make our printing unit self reliant in value addition since customers prefer under one roof printing service,” asserts Pravin Patel, MD, Shree Printwell Offset. 
 
 
"We saw some striking value addition samples over offset printed commercial and packaging jobs. We then realised the complementary role of screen printing in offset printing. Today, 75% of our jobs (commercial and packaging) involve value addition. Our customers accept the idea of UV special effects since they want their jobs to be outstanding. We offer glitter, abrasive, crystal, reflective and other ornamental UV special effects to embellish commercial and packaging jobs.
 
We consider screen printing both an asset and our USP. We are maintaining a growth of 30-40% per annum in our printing business; we believe that sustained growth is possible only with value addition. In the normal offset printing arena, there are too many players with cut throat 
competition.
 
There is a great benefit to us and to our customers, if we have everything inhouse; it gives us total freedom to offer value addition right from design to dispatch. We can now undertake complicated jobs requiring application of various UV special effects over offset printed commercial and packaging jobs.

Sai Nath Poly-Lam
Sai Nath Poly-Lam is a full- fledged post-press service provider, catering to over 150 offset printers and design studios in Gujarat state. They undertake all types of commercial and packaging for the pharma and real estate sector. With their screen print unit they offer value addition, an inspiration received from Grafica. “Today, about 80% of our jobs involve value addition,” say Chetan Rathod and Bhargav Rathod. 

Printicon’s table calendar: an icon of creativity
A table calendar at Printcon is a display of the many special effects / value additions the company can offer to its customers.

Production Details
Quantity: 500 pcs. Distributed among offset and packaging printers to inspire them about tremendous possibilities in value addition vis a vis UV special effects.

UV special effects used: Abrasive, glitter (silver and glitter), crystal, bubble, 3D reflective (micro emboss effect), rough, glow-in-dark, sensation (metallic black uv), gloss/matt.
 
Production process: Offset printing (Sappi 300) gsm and then various UV special effects using advanced screen printing (Grafica’s Nano-Print plus, Nano-UV and Nano-Screen Maker-5-in1).
 
Concept and design: Inhouse. “There was a dual purpose behind producing this table calendar with multiple UV special effects. One, it is presented as a gift to customers in printing industry; two, instead of showing UV special effect sample card, we could demonstrate how the real products (commercial printing or packaging) will look like when various UV special effects are innovatively applied. So, this calendar also works like a product catalogue for our company,” says Snehal Patel of Printicon.
 
Printicon offers specialty screen printing service to offset and packaging printers in Gujarat. Their portfolio includes medical visual aids, wedding cards, brochures, and packaging such as pharma cartons.
 
Image Care
Since the last 15 years, Ahmedabad-based Image Care has positioned themselves as Idea Mill. On the occasion of the completion of this milestone, they have designed and printed a calendar (quantity: 1000) for their own company.
 
The card was backed by very innovative printing ideas. The calendar has more than 14 different print effects including rub-n-smell UV effect. Image Care has used gold copper inks; they have used half tone multiple mesh from 34 T to 180 T for different print special effects. They have used different papers such as uncoated, art paper and butter paper besides fabric. All this, with a multi-coloured corrugated box. 
 
The job was printed on 28x40 inch sheet, and then treated with multiple print finishing with perfect registration. Using quality raw material and ink make a big difference. It keeps you ahead of the competition. This innovative Table Calendar was shortlisted in the recently concluded Fespa awards competition under special effect category,” said Anuj Desai, director of Image Care.