“With Actega, we are targeting the packaging segment, the food safe side of it, at a price that is equivalent to regular coating. And though it’s a special coating, it can be integrated as a regular coating too,” claimed Kaushil Shah, a director at Nulith.

Shah also claimed to have introduced Actega in three of the top five packaging in India. “One of our key customers is Award Packaging, who has integrated Actega coating in their daily usage at their plant in Silvassa,” he said.

In the food safe coating categories, Actega has almost all kinds of application like matte, gloss, satin and the regular ones.

Shah also informed PrintWeek India that a new Actega water-based drip-off coating has been introduced for online usage with six- and more colour presses with coaters. It can create partial matte and gloss contrasts without a spot coating plate in a single pass on conventional oil-based inks and water-based drop-off in combination with primer.

Shah explained how it works. “It works like this: In the last ink duct, a matt effect primer is partially coated. Out of the coating unit, a high gloss coating is applied over the full area. Where the primer and high gloss meet, a matte or repellent effect is realised. Where the primer is not applied, it leaves a high gloss surface,” he said.

Shah also informed about the new Actega Encoding varnish. “Marking, encoding, personalisation are becoming important terms in the printing industry, particularly in the pharma segment,” he said.

Pharma companies need more and more data on their cartons or labels. The area which was left unvarnished for coding, which has been increasing because of new regulations, was always exposed to scratch marks, cracks, ink peels, and such. This Actega varnish can be applied on the carton or labels and then print the data that is required to be printed on them. “This coating is perfectly suitable for individual marking purposes as well as for personalisation on packaging and commercial prints. Your carton or label is protected,” explained Shah.

Nulith also distributes the China-based Lucky Graphics’ flexo plates, which Shah said, has been doing well. “In the West region of India, I would say 90% of the flexo players are also using our plates.”

In the Trellerborg Rollin blankets, which Nulith represents in India, it has upgraded the barring system at our plant in Bhiwandi. “Blankets have now gravitated towards solventless technology. Trelleborg Rollin remains a popular choice with manufacturers of web offset presses. Manugraph and a majority of the manufacturers have approved Rollin blankets.

The new barring system has facilities for testing of blanket load so that there’s zero breakdown; and measuring the thickness of the blanket to provide the correct product, among others.

For Nulith, the blanket business has been a growing one. “We have seen a 25% growth in blanket in newspaper and in packaging, 35-40%. The blanket market is around 2,50,000-sqm of which we have about 25,000-sqm share,” concluded Shah.

Nulith is managed by Shah, his father Suresh Shah and uncle Mahendra Shah and brother Naineel Shah.