Parksons invests in new factory and raft of machines in Sri City

At Sri City a lot of care has been taken to guarantee packaging which is essential for preserving food, pharma and hygiene products. The aim is to ensure printed layers with additional technical features. The emphasis is on creating quality and safety of the food and pharma package - with regard to regulations and standards applicable to packaging.

The new factory on a ten-acre property has been fitted with all types of utilities. The RCC floor has a CTP centre, ink kitchens, and offices built over the production area, which overlooks the surrounding landscape from where one can spot the site of the US multinational Mondelez International, maker of Cadbury chocolates. The Mondelez factory is said to be "the largest international manufacturing facility in the APAC region with a multi-category food campus on 134 acres of leased land". There are more than hundred companies in the 2500 acre Sri City zone which include PepsiCo's beverage manufacturing unit plus a whole host of auto car players.

A brief overview of the machine-muscle at the Parksons factory.

Heidelberg CX-102
The first-in-India, seven-colour B1 press with an inline coater is a combination of the XL class with the platform of the Speedmaster CD 102.

Heidelberg CX 102 at Parksons Packaging, Sri City 

A second CX-102 of the same configuration is expected to be installed at the plant by mid-2017.

The CX-102 is expected to run at top speeds of 16,500sph. It can handle a broad spectrum of substrates ranging from lightweight paper to bending-resistant cardboard, and up to a maximum sheet format of 720mmx1,040mm with a thickness ranging between 0.03mm and 1mm.

The press is also said to feature the Prinect Inpress control version 2 and the New Image control gen 2. It also includes unique wash-up systems, AutoPlate, intellistart, sheetfed control plus feeder and delivery, remote coating adjustments, colour assistant pro and several other enhancements.

“We are very happy to be part of the Parksons family with more than 100 units from us already installed. This press (CX-102) investment shows that they do not just buy new machines but are pioneers in bringing the latest technology for packaging in India,” said Stephan Plenz, the head of the equipment segment and a member of the management board of Heidelberg, who was the guest of honour.

Bobst Novacut 106 ER
Jean-Pascal Bobst, CEO of Bobst Group, who inaugurated the plant, shared the journey of the two companies thus far with 50 Bobst units installed. He said, “Our 20-year-long association has only grown stronger, thanks to the values that drive us. Trust, respect, passion and performance is clearly shared and visible in the way Parksons team works every day.”

The Novacut 106 ER in-line blank separating die-cutter at Sri City is capable of blank separating both double-cut and single-cut cartons at its full speed of 7,000 sheets per hour. The die-cutter can process a wide range of substrates from light paper, carton board to synthetics and corrugated.

The die-cutter features the Angle Lock blanking tool system which means users can blank jobs which previously would not have been cost-effective.

This the fourth installation of Novacut 106 ER at Parksons while this plant also houses the Novacut 106-E with stripping which can work at a rated speed of 8,000 sheets per hour.

Bobst Expertfold 80 A-2 with Accubraille
The Expertfold, according to Bobst is a state-of-the-art folder-gluer with maximum speed up to 450 m/min. The machine can process blanks up to 80cm width and is equipped to run straight-line and crash lock bottom boxes.

The Expertfold 80 A2 comes with Accufeed and Accucheck for 100% in- line quality check of blanks and comes with Accubraille – a braille embossing unit.

Bobst has now almost 30 Accubraille-enabled machines installed in India. Braille embossing is said to be mandatory on pharma cartons being exported to several regulated markets in Europe and also in South America, especially Brazil.

Wen Chyuan KYE-108DRK
The KYE-108DRK laminators are specially designed for water-based adhesive lamination keeping in mind the environment-friendly aspects of the operation. However, it’s said to be a dual-purpose machine that can handle thermal lamination too. The standard KYE-108DRK handles sheet size of up to 910x1080mm, however, for Parksons, the machine will be able to handle a square sheet size of 1080x1080mm.

(l-r) Wen Chyuan's Emma Lin and TGS' Muralidhar Nalli

According to Emma Lin, sales director of Wen Chyuan Machinery, “The USP of the machine is its knives. It is equipped with disc knife, a snapping system for BOPP films and a flying knife for laminates. The customers can use any of these knives depending on the suitability for the job.”

The plant also houses a KYU -9W automatic UV varnish machine for spot and full UV from Wen Chyuan.

Meiguang flute laminator
The flute laminator is said to work at a maximum speed of 12,000 sheets per hour. The Suba Solutions team which has installed the machine claim that this is the first of its kind in India. Apart from higher productivity, the laminator is also said to have several advanced features like on-the-fly servo control to adjust skew of the top sheet which in turn helps to achieve the desired registration between the top and bottom sheets. This is the seventh Meiguang flute laminator in all Parksons facilities.

Suba have installed the Champion two-ply corrugation line at Parksons

Suba Solutions have also installed a Champion two-ply corrugation line and the Eterna-Brausse folder-gluer at the plant which is said to be capable of handling duplex as well as three ply corrugated cartons up to B flute. This equipment, according to the vendor, is upgradeable to four or six corner system as and when Parksons would want it.

Zund S3 M 800
This is the most compact of the S3 range from Zund, which is available in bed size of 1,330x800mm, with optional angled knife cutting attachments. The sample maker equipped with two tools can work at a speed of 84m/min and is powered by Zund Cut Center (ZCC) software.

Zund S3 M800

This is the third Zund cutting table at the Parksons factories across India while the vendor has 130 cutting tables installed in India in myriad market segments including printing and packaging, whereas worldwide more than 20,000 machines are installed.

Ink kitchens
To round off the comprehensive facility, the Sri City plant also has a self-sufficient ink kitchen from Siegwerk and Toyo for food grade inks and UV inks respectively. Siddharth Kejriwal, managing director of Parksons Packaging said while talking to PrintWeek India exclusively, "Great care has been taken at the Sri City factory to ensure the materials and packaging articles are manufactured with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) so that the inks do not transfer their constituents to food. We are working with our ink partners to understand not to endanger human health in any which way."

Today, packaging faces many more legislations and regulations than most print sectors. This means the ink should not bring about an unacceptable change in the composition of the food or pharma product; nor should there be any deterioration in the organoleptic characteristics.