Three highlights from Printex: ERP, PUR and UV

Now Abdul Kassas is back. He says, Tharstern has two new products for the Indian market about which he will make an announcement, soon.

Sangeet Kumar Gupta of Finsys was not overly pleased with the turnout at Printex. But he adds, day two and three may be better and will see "serious customers". I met the media savvy director of the Faridabad-based Finsys at a corrugator's trade show at Pragati Maidan. In the past three months, Finsys has had eight installations at corrugator converters as well as packaging convertors. Gupta stated, "One recent installation has been weaned away from SAP while another customer has shifted from a UK-based MIS system to Finsys."

Most of the top players in folding cartons and corrugation have adopted Finsys. Gupta rattled off the names of his clients in Baddi, Chandigarh, Faridabad, Silvassa, Daman, Peethampur, and so on.

PUR continues its merry march
Meanwhile, PUR continues on its merry march. The Welbound stall had posters of its top PUR customers like Pragati Offset. In September 2011, Pragati Offset installed the RobaPur 4 MOD system on its Kolbus. The retrofitting of the applicator was done by Welbound. Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati, said, “With PUR, we can play around with a vast range substrates and employ a gamut of print finishing operations - and still bind the book.”
 
Endorsing PUR, M N Pandey of Avantika, who installed single-clamp PUR binder in 2012, said, “Digital print is all about the end-product. At Avantika, where we thrive on innovation and experimentation, Welbound and Henkel’s PUR solution is a great help.”

 

Also visible is Akruti who installed Pune’s first PUR perfect binder manufactured by Welbound Worldwide earlier this year. Girish Rao of Akruti said, “Adopting PUR was a significant milestone for us. Having the right partners - Henkel and Welbound, was absolutely essential.”
 

UV power

One must-stop stall at Printex is Kannan Graphics, who branded their stall with Toyo and Arets. Chetan Shah, the affable head of Kannan Graphics, said, "On 25 April 2013, Toyo Ink SC Holdings Co. acquired Arets, the Belgian-based UV ink specialist. The branding on our stall fits this trend well."

For Kannan and Chetan Shah, the UV ink market has been a strong performer in recent years. Now with the backing of Toyo and the Arets branding, it allows Kannan to set new goals.

Shah said, "Kannan is setting up a new office and stocking unit in Vapi to cater to the packaging players in Daman and Silvassa. Even Arets will have a brand new office. This is a growth initiative. It means, we can further improve the global brand of ink coating material products for the printing and information and packaging materials."

He pointed out to recent the JV between Toyo Ink and Heubach to set up organic pigment plant at Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India. This plant and the new factory at Dahej should be a game changer.

Shah added, "Toyo is also introducing new ways of using existing products and creating demand from product replacement with eco-friendly products in Japan and Western countries, its mature areas."

 

To conclude, Shah told PrintWeek India that "UV-cured inks is well positioned for significant growth."

As if to justify Shah's claim, many Indian manufacturers at Printex were bullish about UV printing in India with healthy double-digit growth.

 

The reasons are: lower operating costs. Abhay Datta of UV Graphic Technologies felt costs are going because UV curing has become more energy efficient. Advances have been made in cutting the energy consumption of existing UV curing technologies." In addition, there is low-energy technologies like LED-based systems along with highly reactive inks. 

 

Some Vasai-based packaging CEOs like Harshad Patel of Perfect Print & Pack spoke about how, "UV printing has gains for printers." Today firms in Vasai are doing UV curing bubble and shrink wrap, ultra-thin films, foils, laminates, a range of plastics and boards and glass. The greater the variety of substrates and the more customised the use of UV curing, the greater the possibilities for a brand owner and print buyer."