The Zihong folder-gluer ZH-M1250-C can handle 210 to 850-gsm cardboard, corrugated boxes of E, C, B, AB. The machine, which weighs 10.5-tonnes, runs at the speed of 300-m/min.

H Janarthanan, managing director, Arka Press, said, “We found the Zihong to be versatile in terms of its size and build. We can now manufacture mono and eflute cartons on it at the speed of 300-m/min.

Arka Press is in the packaging business since 2010 and manufactures mono cartons and eflute corrugation cartons. The company converts around 400-tonnes of board and papers per month with an equal ratio of Kraft paper and board (50% is packaging board and 50% is Kraft paper). Around 60% of its total business is corrugation and 40% is mono carton.

“Our customers come from footwear, spices and tea industries,” Janarthanan said.

The company was started by the brothers brothers H Janarthanan and CH Parthasarathy in 1986. Parthasarathy, the joint managing director, said, “We started with screen printing and later added multicolour offset presses from multiple manufacturers.”

In future, he said, the company will go for more folder-gluer with die-cutting. “Recently, we installed a fully automatic five-ply corrugation machine from China. It can convert around 80-tonnes of Kraft paper per day. We are going for second machine with the similar configuration but with bigger size. After that we will invest in corrugation post-press machines,” he said.

The company is also looking to consolidate all its premises under one unit by 2020.