Vijay K Aggarwal, MD and CEO at Alpna Visual Packaging Aids told PrintWeek, “We’ve been in this field for 20 years. Today, packaging needs tactile effect. Investing on inline machines is not possible for everyone. That’s why Alpna is trying to come out with offline solutions.”

Ganesh Kumar, technical consultant for Alpna said, “Today, everybody can print, but value addition is key. For printing effects such as emboss, smell, feather touch, wood finish, mosaic effect and wet feel, we need a 12-colour unit. But, it is very expensive.”

“With Alpna’s offline solutions, you can print in your regular machines and then achieve such effects in the offline machines. That’s the beauty of Alpna’s innovation,” he added.

The Rhino Dexa offline coater has been installed at 18 locations. The offline coater is built on an old Heidelberg printing machine. “This machine can handle short runs, but it is designed for medium to long run jobs. This is for mass production segment,” Aggarwal said.

He said the machine is more productive with added features such as rejection gates, high file delivery, and capable of handling more sheets to save time.

“Our core product is retrofitted UV lamps. We’re also planning to add cold foil in the machines,” Aggarwal concluded.