PrintWeek India readers are familiar with TGS as a player in the offset machines and suppliers of Wen Cheung kit in India. The company has been in the offset printing industry as a service bureau for 20 years.

 

Digiflex’s new business aims to consolidate its business to cater to the packaging market in the city. The new facility at Cherlapally was inaugurated on 28 March, 2015 by Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati Art Printers and Bhalchandra Nikumb, managing director, India – West Asia cluster and channel director, Kodak India; Debasish Banerjee, director, Sigma Scan Systems; Sista Badrinath, AGM State Bank of Hyderabad; and Abraham Prabhakar, vice-president, packaging segment, India cluster were also present on this occasion.

 

The inauguration was followed by an open house by Kodak at Digiflex which was visited by over 300 packaging and printing professionals from the Hyderabad industry, along with a team of experienced serving and retired faculty from the Government Institute of Printing Technology, Secunderabad.

 

The Kodak Flexcel NX imagesetter is the first of its kind machine in Andhra Pradesh. According to Muralidhar Nalli, managing director, TGS and Digiflex, the integration of the new Flexcel NX is part of the company’s focus on better serving to India’s expanding packaging sector with the latest in print technology.

 

Nalli, speaking to PrintWeek India, highlighted the fact that commercial offset market has reached a saturation point. “The future is in packaging,” he said. This is the reason which inspired Nalli to fold-up his previous business of offset pre-press services and to concentrate on providing pre-press services for the packaging industry. “Growing market demand and the need for new technology were the key reasons for the Flexcel installation," he said.

 

The Flexcel NX system at Digiflex leverages Kodak’s square spot imaging technology at an optical resolution of 10,000dpi to produce digital flexo plates that enable a broader tonal range, use of higher line screens, more efficient ink transfer and a higher level of quality.

 

On the occasion of successful installation of the Flexcel system, Nalli said, “After a comprehensive market assessment, we supplied Kodak NX samples to clients on a trial basis and we have received an encouraging response from these clients. That’s how we decided to establish a fully automated and state of the art unit at Hyderabad to cater the Indian market. We are expecting phenomenal growth in the next couple of years.”

 

Shyam Sunder, partner, Digiflex adding to Nalli’s comments said, “Shelf impact, production efficiency and sustainability, the Flexcel system delivers it all, with unique imaging technology and innovative materials that enable unprecedented image quality, stability and predictability in pre-press and the pressroom. Kodak’s portfolio of Flexcel solutions is ideal for virtually every flexo application including flexibles, labels and corrugated.”

 

Digiflex has strengthened its setup with the addition of a Glunz & Jensen Degraf 302 EDLF exposure unit and 305P processor, which Kodak says is a recommended setup a flexo pre-press setup should have. Soon Digiflex will also be integrating Kodak’s Prinergy workflow into the system.

 

After paying homage to Hanumantha Rao, founder of Pragati Art Printers, there was a technical session by Abraham Prabhakar. His talk was focused on the technical aspects of digital flexo plates and innovations in packaging and printing.

 

“The ultra-modern, leading-edge flexo plates will enable the printer to deliver highest quality to the customer”, he said during his presentation. This was followed by a detailed account of the nuances of Kodak’s Flexcel NX technology and plus a stress on new trends in the industry.