PrintPack 2019: Surat’s Kaagaz Press picks up India’s first Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 75

“When we installed the first Heidelberg six-colour plus coater press, a pre-owned machine, we were clear in our mind that it will have to be a Heidelberg. We were impressed with the quality of print, the built is good, and most of all, the excellent support we have received from Heidelberg,” said Narendra Ballar of Kaagaz Press. “So when we needed a new press, it had to be Heidelberg.”

Kaagaz Press prints anything from 35-60 jobs per day, depending on the runs, which is between 2,000 to 10,000 sheets per job.

The reason for opting for the additional investment in a press was driven by the fashion market in Surat, where Ballar said, there’s a tremendous opportunity. “We are running at full capacity, and about 20% of the jobs we cannot manage in-house are outsourced,” said Ballar, explaining further, “Since we cater to clients in the fashion business, the colour becomes an important factor while producing catalogues or brochures. We do not have much control over the quality when the jobs are not elsewhere. It’s not that the quality is bad, but there’s a certain standard which we maintain, a certain amount of carefulness which we cannot expect from someone else.”

Giving reasons for opting for the CX 75, Jitendra Kalani of Kaagaz Press, who helps Ballar manage the print business, said, one, it’s a double diameter impression and transfer cylinders are used to eliminate marking. “When we talk about quality, it is the reproduction of dots, consistency in colour. For example, we did a catalogue with a print run of 6,000 on the pre-owned machine. The consistency of print of the first print to the last was uniform. We checked the Lab values using a spectrophotometer.”

Kalani is a chartered account by profession and said that he always insisted on getting the numbers right, be it accountancy or the print floor. “Every month, we look at two numbers, print to paper ration and paper to machine ratio. The CX 75’s size of 23x29-inch will help us achieve a maximum print to paper ratio,” he said, adding, “Considering the market we are catering to, there a specific requirement of a certain size of catalogue and brochure, this machine is a perfect fit. We will be able to achieve 95% of the ratio. This means we will reduce a considerable amount of waste.”

The new CX 75 press is expected to arrive in April 2019 and following trials, the company hopes to make it function by May 2019.