Explaining the way the two investment will help Veepee, Jai Chandra, managing director at Veepee, said, the Esko DFS software allows the creation of an overall design and die lines of corrugated boxes where the areas requiring flexo printing are defined with precision and are accurately plotted like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, while the Kongsberg is used to output the die lines on a Mylar sheet as well as define the decorative text and image areas – the pieces which are to be output on the flexographic material on the digital imager. “After imaging, the flexo plate pieces, which have been numbered for easy placement using the Mylar sheet, are then precisely cut with bevelled edges so that there is no ink build-up on the leading edges while printing.”

And thought the two investments will help Veepee in labels and flexographic customers, Veepee will be able to offer plates to corrugators at a lower price than before as well as save time in producing die lines and plate mounting. “Earlier, the staggered layout plates that had to be tediously and carefully cut by hand, were difficult to mount. De-mounting the plates after a print run from the cylinder inevitably caused tearing and made them unfit for reuse,” said Chandra. “The staggered layout and precise edge finishing of plates on the Kongsberg allows the printing and inline converting operations to be better balanced and the press to run at higher speeds.”

For Chandra, these investments are part of Veepee’s endeavour to be different from its competitors. “It is a big investment but it has been worthwhile as we have got a lot of appreciation from our customers. In fact one of our customers, Huhtamaki PPL has just won the Worldstar Gold Award for the Horlicks shrink label that was produced using plates supplied by us,” said Chandra with a wry smile.