New seven-colour KBA debuts at Pragati

On 26 February 2016, while Team Pragati unveiled the world’s largest variable pack design job it printed for an FMCG major at Hotel Taj Krishna in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, four kilometres away, at Pragati’s Lakdi Ka Pool unit, a squad of engineers from Indo Polygraph Machinery were finishing the installation of a brand new seven-colour plus coater KBA Rapida 105 full UV press.

16 Mar 2016 | By Rushikesh Aravkar

(r) Paruchuri: "We wanted to try and see for ourselves what we missed"

The first sheet on the new machine was printed on 27 February 2016.

 

The new 40-inch press, which is Pragati’s first KBA, joins an infantry of 18 Mitsubishi and Komori machines on the company’s shopfloor.

 

Speaking to PrintWeek India, Harsha Paruchuri of Pragati said, “Most of the printing units across the world that we visited deployed a KBA press for UV printing. So, when we felt the need to add a new UV press, KBA was a preferred choice. We wanted to try and see for ourselves what we missed. This was the first time when we switched from a Japanese manufacturer to a German manufacturer.”

 

The printing infrastructure of Pragati consists of three seven-colour plus coater press; four six-colour plus coater presses; two five-colour presses; one four-colour press and nine two-colour presses. According to Paruchuri, the print firm can print over three crore sheets monthly.

 

Pragati has also ordered a new Komori seven-colour plus coater UV press, which will replace a six-colour plus coater Mitsubishi Diamond 3000LX UV press when it arrives in April 2016.