Me & My: Miraclon Flexcel NX 4260 system

Please describe your company.
Established in August 2019, Anchor India Automations is a pre-press house. Amit Mittal, Parth Guta, and Saumitra Mishra are the three partners. This year, we moved into a new facility where we are integrating all our pre-press businesses. Our facility is equipped with two Scitex 800 for CTF, offset plate making with thermal, violet, and conventional imaging devices, three-cylinder engraving machines to serve gravure customers, and recently, we installed the Miraclon Flexcel NX 4260 system for digital flexo plates.

Why did you invest in Miraclon Flexcel NX 4260 system?
Digital flexo business in and around Kanpur has seen a lot of growth. We wanted to cater to this promising market while connecting with other flexo press customers nationwide. Being in Kanpur has its merits. While Delhi-NCR is probably the largest print and packaging producer in North India, Kanpur is a close second. The gravure businesses here are looking to evaluate flexo, which speaks to the future growth potential. The label industry is also growing, due to the transition from offset to narrow-web flexo.

What are the properties of the product you like?
The productivity of the Flexcel NX 4260 system is excellent. Half a shift’s imaging on the Flexcel NX system sustains downstream plate production for two shifts. Manpower can also be managed efficiently due to a very simplified plate-making operation. We need only one skilled pre-press operator to manage the imaging process, and that too is for only one shift in the whole day. The rest of our production can be handled by semi-skilled operators, which helps bring down operational costs.

Did you look at other similar products? What are the features that tilted the favour in this?
The 4260 size helps address multiple segments with minimal wastage, allowing greater pre-press and job planning flexibility. The quality of pre-press output was much better. We considered Flexcel NX, especially for our target CI flexo and label segments.

How much have these features helped you in your production?
Being a digital flexo platemaking system that images the competent thermal imaging film instead of a laser ablative mask system (LAMS) layer on a plate, it allows us extremely quick flexo plate production. In addition to this, the consistency of Miraclon’s Flexcel NX system means we have fewer plate remakes and accurate dot reproduction on the Flexcel NXH plate, which our clients appreciate as it simplifies their print production and delivers predictable results. Features like inverted trim waste help us find savings in plate processing, too. Getting gains across the flexo plate production process allows us to stay quick and competitive as a trade shop.

For what applications is the product used?
The Flexcel NX 4260 system produces Flexcel NXH plates, which can be used to print on flexibles, labels, corrugation, and folding cartons. The simplification extends to the product portfolio as we only need to use one type of plate—the Flexcel NXH plate. The Flexcel NX system is also used to image DITR film for analogue applications.

Is there anything that you do not like?
Nothing as such for the moment. There was no difficulty starting from the interaction of the deal until installation. 

If there’s a critical packaging job that has come your way, would you rely on this to see it through?
A critical packaging job means everything from dot reproduction to printing with the right colour space is important, with speed, efficiency, and accuracy, to accurately deliver and exceed brand expectations. Our deep expertise in pre-press combined with the Flexcel NX 4260 system ticks all these boxes, and we can deliver every single time.

What’s the quality like?  
The Flexcel NX 4260 system is a symbol of industry-leading technology that delivers the best quality with the highest possible on-press benefits. Our investment in Miraclon’s PrintSuite, which gives us access to PureFlexo and UV Choice printing, helps us achieve even greater on-press efficiencies with a wider print latitude.