A six-colour servo driven press, the web width of Starflex will vary from 10 to 20 inches, and will feature full servo drive (one servo per unit), UV lamps chill drums, hot and cold foiling, delam-relam, web turnbar, and other units. It will also have the option to convert into a combination press with screen, offset or gravure printing units. The Starflex can print at a speed of 200m/min.

According to sources, approximately 200 label printing presses were installed in India last year. Among them, 40 were high-end European and American presses while Indian manufacturers sold around 60-odd presses. Around 60 installations were pre-owned and the rest 40 were from countries like China, Taiwan, Korea and others.

This makes NBG bullish about the market for narrow-web presses.

“Being an engineering company which has been manufacturing web offset printing presses for the last three decades, we have a better understanding of the behaviour of printing presses,” said Nitin Garg of NBG Printographic Machinery, adding, “While narrow-web flexo presses are different compared to web offset presses, we are confident of delivering a product which label printers can use.”

Garg said the main reason for this confidence is that the very beginning NBG has been manufacturing its parts. “It’s not difficult for us to manufacture parts as we are involved in manufacturing. We understand that printing press manufacturing is a precise job,” he added.

Now, Garg said the company is in a position to provide tailored-made solutions because narrow-web flexo printing presses are application-based. “We have kept our core strong. I believe it’s our strongest part,” he added.

Kishore Kumar of NBG agrees that in all likelihood the narrow-web flexo market will soon be crowded like web offset market, and soon it will be the survival of the fittest. “No doubt, label printing industry is growing at 18% annually and this growth will attract investors. However, after-sale service is the key and we are ready for it,” he said.

He argued that as the life-cycle of a capital equipment is more than a decade, NBG believes that the relationship between the manufacturer and the client is not a simple relationship of buying and selling; it’s a partnership.

In another development, NBG joined hands with Webtech Engineering to serve a complete portfolio of label printing presses to label printers. Garg confirmed that this will not affect Starflex.

 “We joined hands to serve label printers better. Marketing and application support for Webtech will be our responsibility. Meanwhile, we will continue to manufacture Starflex. We have experience on servo and we will use it,” he said.

NBG has a solid infrastructure equipped with multiple CNC machines and Zeiss Inspection for skeleton inspection. The company is now expanding and a two-acre manufacturing plant is under construction in Faridabad.