Zircon books two Xeikon 3500 digital presses, India’s first

The investment, announced on the third day of Labelexpo India 2016, also marks Zircon’s foray into digital.

Very recently, Zircon invested in a new Omet, which has been installed at one of the two plants in Dehradun. The company also has a plant in Chennai. Besides, the Omet presses, Zircon plants are equipped with five Mark Andy narrow-web flexo printing presses in operations, a screen printing setup, plus Rotoflex inspection, slitting and rewind systems as part of its post-press fleet.

Meanwhile, on the second day of Labelexpo India 2016, Zircon invested in India’s first Rotalen direct laser engraver manufactured by SPG Prints.

“Digital is still struggling to gain a foothold in a predominantly flexo-based Indian label industry,” said Sondhi. “But change is needed, and with Xeikon’s print capabilities can convert some of the applications, profitably. Going ahead, we will also try and create a market for ourselves, which will be addressed with this new investment.”

The five-colour Xeikon 3500 can print on substrate width from 10 to 20-inch at a maximum speed of 19.2 m/min. “Zircon is a volume printer, so he will try and run some new type of labels in terms of variable content, which will benefit him,” said Bent Serritslev, managing director for Xeikon in the Asia Pacific Region. “The press offers a combination of 1200x3600 dpi addressability and 4-bit variable dot density, enabling adding micro text, for instance, for anti-counterfeiting applications.”

According to Sondhi, the Xeikon 3500 offers one-pass white, even on heat sensitive PE and direct thermal label substrates. “We hope to create perfect images on transparent as well as metallic label stock. With the Xeikon’s no-click module, we now have a solution that is efficient and cost-effective.”