Flexo pre-press houses showcase their expertise at PackPlus 2018

Deepanshu Goel of Creative Graphics said the company came to the exhibition to meet its existing clients, as we as the potential ones. Around 200 people visited the stall, where the company displayed its flexo plates.

Meanwhile, Creative is upgrading its plant in Hyderabad and a new HD line is under installation, which will go into production on Independence Day.

“Flexo is growing because people from different printing technologies are exploring it, whether it is narrow or wide web. And the transfer is smooth to flexo printing technology from other technologies. Thus, the demand for flexo printing plates has been increasing so the number of new flexo pre-press houses and capacity of existing flexo pre-press houses are increasing,” Goel said.

Goel also said there have been many developments in flexo printing, especially in consistency. “We produce 125 to 200 lpi flexo printing plates for narrow web printing presses and 150 lpi for wide web, but it all depends on customer and machine,” he added.

Right now, Creative serves to around 250 clients from its locations in Noida, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Anupama Printing Solutions was at PackPlus for the second year. According to Sachit Katyal of Anupama Printing Solutions, the exhibition has good for the company with around 700 people visiting the stall.

Anupama displayed flexo plates and offset plates.

“We are in flexo plates for the last four years and we service around 200 customers. Most of our customers use India-made flexo printing presses,” Katyal said.

Hydrotek Engineers has exhibited multiple times at PackPlus. But, according to Nitin Chugh of Hydrotek Engineers, 2018 was the best edition for the company. “This is the second time when we exhibited digital flexo printing plates,” he said.

During the exhibition, four printing presses manufacturers, Gehlot Industries, Flexo India, Mahaveer Group and Star Flex Industries, used the company’s flexo plates/ blocks for live demos.

“In our year-long journey into digital flexo printing plates, we have learnt a lot and people are recognising our work,” Chugh said, adding that the company services around 500 customers for digital plates and blocks.

“Number of flexo pre-press houses has increased and everyone wants to win the race. Eventually, in flexo pre-press, investment is more than capacity. Sooner or later, the industry will go for consolidation and only serious players will stay,” he said.

He gave the example how there are around ten flexo pre-press houses in Delhi-NCR, but there’s not enough work to go around. “These pre-press houses will survive if a few CI printing presses come to the geography, but this is not happening,” he added.