Made in India: Vijaya Veenine folder-gluer

Launched in 2009, the Vijaya Veenine is a high-speed carton folder-gluer for straight line, crash-lock bottom, cache covers, envelopes, double-wall carton, duplex as well as triply packaging. 
According to Prashanth Kumar, director, Vijaya Grafiks, the machine is targeted at pharmaceutical cartons manufacturers. So far, the company has installed more than 500 machines. More than 60 of these machines are Veenine.

Kumar says while looking for a carton folder-gluer, customers usually look for an economical machine which can offer efficiency with no wastage in production. “The machine should also have less job change overtime, be easy to maintain with easily available spares, aftersale service, and timely delivery,” he adds.

The USP
Kumar says the USP of the Veenine is – its economical pricing with no wastage in production. He explains, “The best part of Veenine is that you can run multiple jobs in the same machine, whether it is straight line, crash-lock bottom, cache covers, envelopes, double-wall carton, French fries or popcorn cartons, duplex as well as triply."
The company has its service engineers in Bengaluru and Delhi for timely service to its  customer across India. “After a new installation, depending on the customer, we provide training for three to ten days,” he adds.

Making a difference 
Vijaya started its journey as Vijaya Packaging Machineries in Bengaluru on April 2001 manufacturing carton folder-gluer in a traditional way. Kumar says, in the beginning there was no difference between machines manufactured by Vijaya and other manufacturers. “Earlier, our machines were of low speed and noisy. There were vibration problems, and problems of wastage, and it required regular maintenance,” he says. 

Not satisfied with the quality of the machine, the company soon started upgrading its technology.

“By 2004, we started manufacturing lock-bottom carton folder-gluers. We faced a lot of difficulties in the early days and we improved the technology by frequently upgrading the designs,” Kumar explains. 

In 2006, Vijaya Grafiks made its Delhi move, to get closer to its customers, and serve them better. This, Kumar says, made the company study the problems faced by its customers in setting job and upgrading the quality of metallurgy. “We studied some European machines and their technologies used in the manufacturing processes, and made ourselves better day by day,” he says.

The model Vijaya Veenine, with a lot of changes in its existing machine, was launched during PrintPack 2009. 

“The basics of Veenine have been improved, including the frame, metallurgy of shafts, bearing, folding belts, and hardchromed alloy shafts. We also introduced new systems like separate motor unit wise, vibrating arm, suction in feeding system, independent pre-folding unit with advanced gum flap pre-folding apparatus, where a vision camera can be mounted. The third crease folding with the belt prevents scratches on the cartons, lock-bottom unit with three bottom track and five top tracks. This helps the carton remain under the pressure of two tracks at the time of folding the flaps,” explains Kumar.

The technology
Also, the top pressure tracks are self-adjustable for duplex and triply cartons. The glue unit comprises both side glue tank with mechanical wheel system. The grinder or the plasma curing system can be installed easily. The final folding unit was improved by increasing the length. The company also introduced speed variation system in the final folding side belts which helps in running disproportionate cartons. The transfer section was upgraded with pneumatic batch counting system, jamming sensor, and straightening device.

The unit is upgradable to error carton ejection for quality assurance system. There is also the pneumatic-pressured, extended pressing station which helps in setting duplex or triply carton according to required pressure and speed.  

Kumar says the folder-gluer can handle straight line cartons, crash-lock bottom cartons, duplex, triply cartons, catch covers, fliptop cartons, double wall cartons, liner cartons, different shaped cartons like triangle, coned, etc. The machine can achieve a maximum of 300-m/min with zero-wastage. 

Customer-focused
Customers use the Veenine for varied purposes. For example, customers like White Print O Pack, SS Industries, and Shreeshyam Enterprises use the machine to manufacture pharmaceutical cartons at high speed, getting a large production daily. Printwell Offset in Rajkot and Packing Box in Bawana use the machine for PVC cartons. RDA Print N Pack and Durable Printers run the machine for triply lock bottom cartons. 

On the other hand, RP Print N Pack uses the machine for 40-inch lock-bottom duplex cartons with the body height of 40-mm, and Arihant Printers in Rai deploys the machine for 40-inch tube light cartons.

In another development, the company introduced a braille embossing system on the folder-gluer during PrintPack 2019. The online Braille embossing system can be installed on the Veenine model. 

Recently, the company also introduced a carton strapping machine, which is used to strap the counted cartons from the delivery unit. “We are planning to develop an online collecting table to ease handling of cartons coming from the delivery unit. This resulted in increased production,” Kumar says.

As far as made in India machines facing competition from Europe and China from the other, Kumar says, there is no visible competition. This is because the quality of Chinese machines is poor and the European machines (new or used) are expensive. He adds, "These machines are imported, and so after-sale service is not available. Under the circumstances, India-manufactured machines are value for money if after-sale services are at par.”