Parksons pioneers cold foiling in Asia with the Holy Grail of sheetfed press

The press has been running tests at its Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand.

 

The print packaging firm, which has already deployed three new presses in this financial year; a seven-colour press from KBA, a highly configured Heidelberg and a Komori, has opted for the machine after carefully examining all the options, said Siddharth Kejriwal, managing director, Parksons Packaging, during the “print foil revolution” launch on 8 May 2015 in front of a gathering of brand owners .

 

Parksons was the first Indian firm to invest in KBA’s six-colour UV press with interdeck drying and inline UV coating in 2005 at its Daman plant; and later the double coater press from KBA at the Daman plant. With the new KBA, Parksons has taken its KBA tally to seven presses. This makes  it KBA’s Key Account Holder (KAH). 

 

“The highpoint about the KAH is, there are seven key account customers for KBA worldwide. Out these, two are from India,” said Aditya Surana, managing director, Indo Polygraph Machinery.  

 

KBA’s inline cold foil press at Pantnagar is an eight-colour press which can achieve speeds as close to 18,000 sheets per hour. “We can actually print foil like ink. This allows designers to create stunning metallic effects that was not possible earlier, embedded completely within the graphics,” said Kejriwal speaking about the machine’s several unique features. 

 

“With this combination of foil one can achieve a wide myriad of metallic and non metallic hues, in different forms of gradients, halftones, solids and can make the packaging look completely unique,” he added. 

 

When asked what prompted Parksons to make this investment, Kejriwal said, “Today’s packaging buyers not only want their product to stand out in the clutter of a retail shelf, but also want the product to suitably communicate the story of the brand. Simply put, the packaging is no more only about a product or brand – it is the brand. So we felt cold foiling technology fulfilled many of those aspirations.” 

 

“In-line cold foiling has proved to be a boon for packaging printers in terms of security and sustainibility, and comes with innumerable advantages,” said Deitmar Heyduck of KBA speaking exclusively to PrintWeek India.

 

“In terms of sustainability, cold foiling eliminates plastic and is 100% recyclable.”

 

Holograms and other forms of overt security features have had limited success in the market place to help consumers differentiate between genuine and fake packaging. “Cold foiling addresses this issue beautifully. We can not only create great designs but combine it with some complex techniques of using foil to make copying the packaging nearly impossible,” adds Heyduck.

 

The announcement of the installation was followed by the unveiling of samples for the benefit of 150 brand firms present at the event.