Speaking about the new investment, Kirtik Patel, owner of Prepking Process, said, “We used to produce 400 plates per day on our Cron CTCP machine with Shangzun plate processor, which were installed in January 2017 by Nippon Color. Since then, our business increased and we needed to upgrade our production units. Hence, we installed a new thermal CTP along with a new plate processor.”

The latest investment is an Insun 8-up thermal CTP machine with 96 laser diodes with plate size up to 1160 x 940 mm. The Shangzun TPD-860 CTP plate processor has a speed of up to 36 plates per hour with a resolution of 2,400 dpi.  

Patel said that he was happy with the results of the existing Cron CTCP machines and the services from Nippon Color. However, the company needed thermal technology for certain customers, and opted for a thermal CTP machine.

“We are now using T830HS thermal plates that can achieve up to 99% at 200lpi and run up to 3,00,000 copies unbaked. They are universal plates that can also be developed in Kodak and Technova chemicals, giving us extreme convenience,” Patel said.

Patel said the machine is equipped with intelligent management technology called laser tube multi-channel. “When one of the laser channels fail, the system switches to the next channel by intelligent control, in order to keep the CTP working properly. Individual damaged laser tubes can be separately replaced, which reduce repair costs.”

“Moreover, the machine’s dynamic autofocus technology adjusts precisely to within 0.01 microns. This not only keeps the dot areas even, but also precisely controls density and decreases the problems of blue spots and blue halos, which are caused by fine dust on the drum surface. It is possible to achieve highly precise screening up to 350 lpi,” he added.

With the new investment, Patel aims to cater to higher quality jobs with stringent requirements. “The machine can print on different range of rugged media, which can help us get more packaging jobs.”

Earlier, Perpking Process used to produce 500 plates per day with their CTCP machines. With the latest installation, the company now produces 400 plates per day on CTCP and 150 plates per day on thermal CTP.

“Insun thermal CTP offers a great price point for users to migrate to thermal technology. The price of the double layer thermal CTP plates offered by Nippon Color is competitive as well,” Patel said.

“The Shangzun processor has many advantages over other plate processors. They have a special water saving design where the water runs only when plate is moving, hence reducing water consumption,” he added.

Patel said that the machine is very simple and easy to use, and requires only one person to operate, as the set-up is completely online.

“Nippon Color has an excellent team from pre-sales to sales and after-sales. They make the installation seamless and provide us with on-site training and after-sales service,” Patel said.

Akshat Pardiwala, CEO at Nippon Color, said, “This is the first Insun machine installed in India. However, the installation was seamless, we did not face any issues and the customer started production immediately after installation. We have offered three years warranty for the laser and machine parts.”

“We have three more confirmed orders for the Insun CTP machines, which will be installed in this quarter,” he concluded.