Maisha ups pre-press ops with Esko kit

Founded in 2017 by two 30-year old entrepreneurs, Shyamal Purani and Aditya Doshi, the company specialises in the production of folding cartons, rigid boxes, labels and point-of-sale materials. 

Catering to a wide range of segments right from cosmetics to electronics, their new set-up focuses on providing value additions with post-press innovations while satisfying brands owners’ key demand for colour accuracy and quality in feasible and shorter time frames.

The company houses a five-colour Komori Lithrone, six-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster and a two-colour Heidelberg press. It also boasts of an expansive range of post-press equipment that facilitates rigid box, carton and label conversion, with an arsenal of machines that include spot UV kits, hot foil stamping, embossing machines, window patchers, die-cutters, box pressing and corner pasting machines among others. The Mumbai-based firm produces more than 25 medium-to-long-run jobs in a week, packed in daily eight hour shifts.

And now, with the two new installations by Esko, Maisha has upped its pre-press capabilities which already included Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom and InDesign along with a Kodak platesetter (thermal CTP) w/Prinect.

According to Shyamal Purani, founder and CEO, Maisha Pack, the core reason behind the investment of ArtiosCAD was to upgrade the structural package design process at Maisha Pack. “We wanted to strengthen our structural design prowess in packaging, for which Esko’s ArtiosCAD was the perfect fit as it is the leading software in the market for automation and precision in die-making,” he said. 

Aditya Doshi, co-founder, Maisha Pack, said, “From a structural design point of view, ArtiosCAD provides the right framework for beginning any packaging job and rectifying and modifying it further. It comprises a range of preset libraries for multiple structures of paperboard cartons and corrugated boxes, which has enabled us to redesign our existing packages and also innovate new jobs, with a swift turnaround time for further changes and corrections.”

(L-r) Aditya Doshi and Shyamal Purani of Maisha Pack

"This packaging design software by Esko eliminates human-induced errors in the downstream processes of the workflow and also offers 3D package views to check for inconsistencies before going to print. This enablement of error reductions and accurate testing of the packaging structures in a 3D view provides high-level quality control and downtime reductions, which proved to be essential, especially in the new normal caused by the Covid-19 pandemic," said Purani.

Simply put, ArtiosCAD has turned out to be a key investment for Maisha Pack, which aims to diversify its offerings to cater to a new wave of printing and packaging requirements. However, in the case of Esko ArtPro+, it was not part of Maisha’s earlier strategic plans, “Initially, we did not intend to opt for Artwork Pro+ because we were satisfied with Adobe Illustrator’s offerings in terms of print conversion. But then, we found out that the combination of ArtiosCAD and ArtPro+ is the perfect solution for structural designs and graphic editing, product development and virtual prototyping, which would set a benchmark for future-proofing in our pre-press departments,” said Purani.

According to Doshi, the Esko ArtPro+ installation has proved to be a powerful tool for quality control as well as artwork rectification and enhancement. “It has significantly helped increase our print quality and boosted our prepress efficiency. The software has enabled us to modify and manipulate images accurately, in terms of varnishes or overcoats, with ease.”

“Both software packages have proved to be pivotal in increasing the overall job quantum at Maisha,” concluded Purani.