Speaking to PrintWeek India on the third day of Labelexpo India 2016, Ashish Chitale of Coats & Pack said, “The definitions of long-runs and short-runs are rapidly changing in the label segment. Once upon a time, 25,000 to 35,000 running metres was considered a long-run job. Today, even a 15,000 running metres job seems to be a long-run one.”

With long jobs are getting shorter by the day, Chitale observed that the average run-length of the jobs that his firm prints is around 3,500 running metres.

Chitale added, “There are digital options available and we are exploring digital as a technology, but considering the competition, the prices of digitally printed labels are impossible to match with conventional printing and the customer is not willing to pay the added cost.”

Secondly, the expensive plate costs associated with narrow-web flexo technology are not borne by the customer. “The plates are expensive and that add to final cost. Also, the power consumption is huge. In the city like Mumbai, for two Gidue machines at our unit, we need to deploy 12 tonnes of air-conditioning round the clock. That’s expenditure again,” said Chitale.

Considering these issues and its long-standing association with Zonten, started in 2007 when the firm installed its first roll-fed tower from Zonten, it was an obvious choice to go for an intermittent offset press. Chitale said, “When I visited Zonten’s factory in China to evaluate the print quality, I was rest assured that this machine fits the bill.”

The ZTG 330 is an eight-colour machine with six offset units and two flexo coating units at the two ends of the machine. The machine is also equipped with a water-based lamination unit at the very end. Explaining the configuration, Chitale said, “The first flexo coater is either for priming or for printing opaque white as I feel flexo opaque white is better than the offset one and hence and the last one is for UV varnish.”

The machine showcased at Zonten’s Labelexpo stand will be installed at Coats & Pack post the show. Initially, Chitale will shift the jobs requiring water-based lamination onto the new Zonten and do trials with the unsupported film jobs.

Established in 1990, Coats & Pack ventured into roll-fed label printing in 2007 with a Zonten tower press and went on to add another similar machine in 2009. As the label jobs became more complex and the need for value addition surged, the company invested in two Gidue M1 and M3 machines in succession. The new Zonten, to be installed by Mumbai-based Multigraph, its Indian representative, is Coats & Pack’s fifth machine.