Producing high quality Aadhaar cards with Kodak NexPress

Kodak NexPress facilitates delivery of high quality Aadhaar cards in time to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) through Hyderabad-based kl hi-tech secure print limited, a company engaged in security printing, using state-of-the-art printing technology. Under the strategic partnership working out very well, kl hi-tech got the contract to initially print 36 million cards in 110 days, translating to 8M A3 4 colour impression in three months. Being an initiative by the Government of India to collect, collate and in due course issue an identification document to every citizen of India, the Aadhaar card project is perhaps the biggest digital colour application in the world. Proven its service and product quality with the ISO 9001 certificate, kl hi-tech has a commendable track record in printing and handling different types of security and confidential jobs which are classified as highly sensitive in nature to the entire satisfaction of a large customer base spread across India and abroad. Reputed banks in the private and public sector in India and abroad, educational institutions, election commissions, across the globe trust kl hi-tech for doing their confidential and secure documents printing works. With a production capacity of printing one million sheets per month from a single site, kl hi-tech caters to the large volume printing requirements of their clients by providing them end-to-end solutions. These include designing and printing of pre printed forms, printing of variable data on them, stuffing the forms in the envelope and mailing them to the subscribers, printing various types of security documents, ballot papers and other confidential documents.

With a strong mission to deliver world class products at competitive prices, kl hi-tech secure print limited, an existing user of Kodak ‘D’ series (mono) heads, invested in a Kodak NexPress SE 3600 along with a 2100 Classic in January 2012. With this investment, kl hi-tech now has three NexPresses installed till date. Though they had invested in many digital monochrome presses earlier, including a Kodak Versamark, this is their first foray into digital colour printing. Watching for opportunities and new markets, Kodak and kl hi-tech worked closely on the ‘Aadhaar card project’ right from the pre bid stage. This strategic partnership worked out very well and they got the contract to initially print 36 million cards in 110 days, this translates to 8M A3 4 colour impression in three months.

This was a tremendous achievement not only for kl hi-tech but also goes a long way in proving the sturdiness of the NexPress platform and the Kodak Service team’s commitment. Both NexPresses have been on 24×7 (except for regular maintenance / ORC change) and have been supported by the DPS service team 24×7 at the site, conveys P Srinivasa Rao, chairman of kl hi-tech secure print limited.

Kodak solves the challenges…

“Need for good quality colour printing, cost effectiveness and productivity were the main criteria for us to select digital options,” says Rao. The larger imaging area of the NexPress enabled kl hi-tech to print more cards at a time while the competing models could produce less. This better productivity and better output combined with the better ORC rate offered by Kodak made the offer very competitive.

Leveraging the core strengths…

For the Aadhaar card project being the biggest digital colour application in the world, kl hi-tech wanted a sturdy machine which could take this kind of a load. Every day the company had a commitment to deliver half a million Aadhaar cards. So a sturdy, rugged machine was required which could work 24x7x365. “We considered all the machines available in the market and amongst all these we found the Kodak NexPress most suited for this job. It is also the most cost effective amongst all the machines,” ads Rao further. Amongst all the available digital press options, Kodak NexPress turned out to be the most rugged. The NexPress looked and worked like a digital press with the features of an offset press. “We are convinced that our investment in the Kodak NexPress is a better investment than investing in any other digital press,” mentions Rao.

The road ahead…

This card project is expected to go for another two years. All the three machines will be engaged for the next two years in the Aadhaar card project and similar such projects. “We will print smart cards for domestic and international markets,” says an upbeat Rao. “With sturdiness to perform long runs, good service back up and a very good price, it gives us very good quality printing, helping to improve the top line for the Aadhaar card project and thereby contributed to the bottom-line as well. That’s the reason we invested in three NexPress in the last six months,” he adds suumming up the strong points of the NexPress.

kl hi-tech sees a lot of scope in packaging and hence are planning to get into pharmaceutical packaging. Hyderabad being a pharma hub, there is lot of scope for package printing, and the company will be investing in some equipment to cater it shortly. Apart from this, kl hi-tech will also get into smart card production in a larger way and expand the data processing business for which Kodak will certainly be on hand to help the company achieve its business goal.