The second presentation of the webinar was by K Shyamsunder, a seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience in pre-press. He owns and heads the operations at Hyderabad-based Digiflex which caters to the flexo printers in and around Hyderabad and across India.

He said, "I’ve been in the pre-press segment since over 20 years, mainly catering to offset printers and advertising agencies in Hyderabad." Digiflex was established in 2015 at Cherlapally, Hyderabad with a 4,000 sq/ft premises. The pre-press house has installed the latest Kodak Flexcel NX system along with Glunz & Jensen ECDLF and in-line processor, suitable for making high-end digital flexo plates. Shyamsunder mentioned, "We have adopted the good and standard manufacturing processes which the flexo pre-press industry follows worldwide with our motto of ‘Make Local, Be Global’."

Shyamsunder said, "It was very difficult for us to choose the right equipment to meet the market requirements since we were new to the flexo pre-press industry, we did lot of ground work regarding the latest market trends and also our customer base requirements."

One of the points he made during the webinar was how the making of high quality flexo-plates involves complicated process unlike offset, which made it tougher to decide on the best solution. He said, "After taking all trials and looking at the productivity, quality, ease and simplicity of operations, we found that Kodak Flexcel NX System and plates delivered outstanding performance and quality. Kodak presented the most suitable solution for our business needs."

Since Digiflex was new and had to meet the existing suppliers’ quality, "our approach to getting new business was to eliminate the existing problems the printer is facing."

Shyamsunder said the secret to their success was: "a lot of finger-printing with each customer." He felt, "With finger-printing, we were able to understand the customer requirement and supplied the most suitable plates. The end result – customer was very happy with the output. It also helped in reducing his make-ready and wastage, brought savings in varnishing/inks, and led to approval of job in first attempt."

Thus, Digiflex was able to create a strong customer base and add new clients on regular basis, bringing more ease into the business.

With Kodak’s Flexcel NX CTP, Thermal Imaging Layer (TIL) and NX Plates, Digiflex can image 9.6sqm per hour at 2400 dpi (or 300 lpi) consistently without slowing the machine down, unlike competitive solutions where either you can choose speed of output or high-quality imaging

Shyamsunder added, "Besides digital flexo plates, we also have the flexibility to image analogue plates as well as DITR film using the same Kodak Flexcel NX System, which competition’s equipment cannot deliver. This gives us the added ability to cater to end customers with many different application needs."

He said, "Our flexo plates, CTP, workflow are from a single manufacturer which is Kodak." This means a more controlled eco-system and all our concerns are addressed by a one-point contact. Plus there is a seamless integration between equipment, workflow, consumables and technical support for working with end-customers.

Shyamsunder said, "With multiple manufacturers, there is a lack of accountability if something goes wrong. Plate supplier will blame equipment supplier and vice versa, leading to longer time to find solutions to even simple problems."

Thusfar the feedback from Digiflex's customers has been very encouraging.

Shyamsunder said, "Customers were able to reduce wastage and make-ready was quick."

He pointed out, "The most challenging thing for any flexo printer was to print halftones and solids using the same plate, but we could achieve this by using Kodak’s DigiCap NX Screening technology. Thus, customers can print halftones and solids in one plate and save one plate. In addition, for CI Flexo jobs, we were able to match gravure-quality prints.

Shyamsunder concluded his presentation by stating, "The technical support from Kodak was very good and our future plans are to go for a wide pre-press imaging set-up." 

Watch PritnWeek India Awards webinar part I and II:

Building a sustainable and green environment for packaging convertors (Part I) - https://goo.gl/b5xU4M

Improve your RoI with the right pre-press technology (Part 2) - https://goo.gl/VSHKhK