Four Heidelberg Anicolor installs in India
After the installation of the SX 52 Anicolor at Prakash Offset in Mangalore, the Heidelberg juggernaut rolls on. The no inking zone press is in full operation in Rajams Digital in Chennai, Vinayaga Screens in Madurai, and Usha Prints in Bengaluru. The last two Anicolors are loaded with a coater., Business
02 May 2016 | By Priya Raju
BH Srinivas with his team, who feel the Anicolor is more capable when it comes to colours because of the anilox rollers, which allows the print job to take more ink where you need to run the colour a bit stronger
When PrintWeek India spoke to BH Srinivas of Usha Prints in Bengaluru, he said, he selected the press over conventional press because "the Anicolor reduced start-up waste by 90% and increased press capacity by 25%."
He added at his recently complete five-storey print factory, "The Anicolor has no inking zones, cutting make-ready times by up to 40, and only 10-20 start-up sheets are required, depending on the job, because it has fewer rollers than a conventional unit. The unit releases exactly the same amount of ink to the printing plate with each revolution for consistently smooth printing."
Temperature control and a chambered blade system speed up ink changes and reduce cleaning times.
At Vinayaga Screens, a commercial printer with a good share of walk-ins, L Ramanathan, managing director at the firm said, the Anicolor - installed last year - helps them compete with the digital print shops.
“The main USP of Anicolor, I would say, is the minimal make-ready time - one time a customer came to our print shop at closing time with an urgent requirement for a wedding event. I offered them coffee and by the time we were done, the job of 500 sheets was printed and delivered to them,” explained Ramanathan. “The online coating unit is a lucrative feature too, enabling jobs like POS posters, danglers, flyers can be delivered in shorter time to our customers,” he added.
The same theme resonates with the Anicolor installed at Prakash Offset in 2014, which is poised to handle the medium run print jobs such as those with quantities ranging from 100 sheets onwards. PR Nayak’s nephew and partner at the firm, Anand Prabhu, said, “Being a commercial printer with offset and digital combi set-up, we feel that when a print run crosses 120-130 sheets, the economics are in favour of offset.”
“Earlier we used to convert such short run jobs to offset and deliver them from our Baikampadi facility. However, this meant four to five hours of turnaround time. With Anicolor’s shorter make-ready times we are able to deliver the same job in 20 minutes,” added Prabhu.
Even in Chennai, Rajams Digital has demonstrated that litho has a place in the short-run digital market.
The press in Chennai offers a break-even point of "between 150 and 200 sheets" while offering fast makereadies of around three or four minutes."
This was evident at Usha Prints which has pulled off "a 29 set job in three hours thirty minutes on its secondhand Anicolor kit".
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