Hydrotek Engineers forays into digital flexo plates with Kodak NX

“This is why we went for digital flexo imagesetter. We already have an analogue facility for plates. We have just started our journey with digital but the kind of feedback we are getting from our existing customers has been encouraging,” Chugh said. At the same time, he is aware that the journey “will not be easy as there are several big players and competition in the market”.

Chugh said the machine’s flat-top dots solve a problem inherent with traditional digital flexo platemaking technology. “The DigiCap NX Patterning is a software- based feature that enables a major step forward in ink transfer efficiency. Its Squarespot Imaging Technology delivers a higher level of stability, accuracy and reliability in pre-press and the pressroom,” he said.

Chugh was interested in designing and it brought him in to graphic art industry. He nourished his interest in design during his engineering education, with mechanical drawing. “I knew the knowhow of designing and this passion brought me to printing,” he said. Before this, he was in automobile industry.

Presently, the company is supplying printing plates for corrugation, polythene industry, HTP, paper cups manufacturers and others. Chugh said for narrow-web, we had challenges like vignettes. “You cannot remove those without digital,” he said. “I was searching for a digital system for the last two years. I could achieve my targets in Kodak NX easily compared to other available options. The main thing is your printed samples. On Kodak, dots of 1% or even less come easily. It can go up to 300lpi and in other machines it is problematic to achieve even 175lpi.”

Now, Chugh wants to expand the company portfolio and supply its plates to CI and narrow-web flexo industry. “It means, the machine is future-ready. It is ready to meet the challenges for the next three to five years,” he said.

Chugh said he always hires people from outside the industry and train them. “There are two benefits of this exercise – loyalty factor is high and someone can learn something. Now, we have to pick a good pre-press operator, especially for digital,” he said. He also offers free designing courses for volunteers.

Hydrotek, which is also involved in trading of printing ink and self-adhesive plates, is expecting more than 200% growth after the Kodak installation.