For Samir Patel, the director of DPPL, the foray in packaging has come twelve years after he set up Dev Offset, which specialised in commercial and wedding cards works. “This venture in Santej is our diversification into packaging with a new company, Dev Print & Pack (DPPL), which was established in 2016.”

The 45,000 sq/ft plant houses a Heidelberg CD 102 six-colour plus coater and is fitted with intradeck IST UV system, Bobst Novacut 106E die cutter and Bobst Visionfold 110A-2 folder gluer with HHS cold glue and hotmelt gluing, and a laminating machine 106 GMF with hot knife from Tianchuen.

Taking the PrintWeek India team on a tour of the plant, Patel said, “You saw that we are running a single production line at the plant. That’s a risk. But by installing equipment from Bobst and Heidelberg, which proven technology, we have ensured that we have zero down-time in our production process.”

He added, “Just to emphasis, we retrofitted the IST UV system on the Heidelberg press, because it’s a proven technology, and from the results, our decision has proved correct.”

The Bobst machines, for example, said Patel, gives us an edge when it comes to efficiency, productivity and ease of operation. “The Bobst’s micrometric centring helps to set the 1mm plate with respect to the die with a +/- 0.9 mm settings in all directions and this helps in precise makeready and fast job changeover with repeatability.”

Patel added, “The centre line system, quick lock chase, main gripper bar drive mechanism with double cam sector drive and fine settings possibility on feeder and delivery section, ensures fast changeovers and precise registration accuracy at top speed throughout the life of the machine.”

DPPL, which began operation six months ago, has seen an incremental rise in its paperboard conversions. According to Patel, in January 2017, the company began with a conversion of around 60-70 tonnes per month, and at present its converts around 140-150 tonnes. “we have been increasing our production by 10%.”

Patel, who is assisted by his brother Chirag, started with a screen printing unit. He concluded on an optimistic note and a belief that print is the only business that one can start with an investment of as little as Rs 1,000 and scale it up to as big as one can get. “I did not have enough funds when I started out, but today we have invested in close to Rs 25-crore in the Santej plant.”