From digital towards offset

-Perfact Color Digital goes for brand ‘Autoprint’, installs Dion 450 We have all been hearing of offset printers going the digital way, but here’s the story of a large digital printing service provider, opting for an indigenously manufactured 4-colour sheet-fed offset machine, thus reinstating the fact that digital and offset printing will go hand in hand. Coimbatore-based small format sheet-fed offset manufacturer – Autoprint Machinery Manufacturers Pvt. Ltd. – with an impressive number of 6000+ satisfied customers in India and overseas, recently installed a 4-colour Dion 450 press at Perfact Color Digital – a digital giant service provider in Gurgaon. This is a matter of great pride that this 20-year-old establishment, utilizing almost none of the equipment produced indigenously, has opted for the ‘4-colour sheet-fed offset machine’ manufactured in India.

The open house…

CN Ashok (Autoprint), Ashwani Arya (Perfact Color Digital), Sanjeev Popli and Jasbeer Singh (Vidhur Graphics)More recently, Vidhur Graphic Solutions, New Delhi, the local distributor of Autoprint, organized an Open House for media to have first-hand views from Ashwani Arya, managing director, Perfact Color Digital as well as to witness the machine working in full stream, at the premise of Perfact Color Digital in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon.

Conveying his full confidence in Autoprint products, Ashwani Arya narrated his brief visit to the manufacturing facility of Autoprint at Coimbatore. He told that the methodologies and the quality of components used in the machine convinced him to choose this without any hesitation. “Besides, the easy availability of spares and service ‘at call,’ apart from the affordable cost of ownership, further justified my choice,” communicated Arya instantly.

CN Ashok, director of Autoprint, who was also present at the Open House, appreciated the decision taken by Perfact Color Digital and conveyed that the model Dion 450 was fully tried and tested before offering to the market.

Dion 450 has been successfully running for a few months at Perfact Color Digital and Ashwani Arya expressed full satisfaction with its performance. “The machine has been running tirelessly round-the-clock, churning out printed sheets,” he informed. The range of jobs includes pre-printed stationery which is further printed digitally with variable data on any of their installed digital presses. Very interestingly, the application of printing the ready envelopes of varied sizes has also been a regular activity on Dion 450 which, otherwise, is a very complex process.

As per Sanjeev Popli, director at Vidhur Graphics, New Delhi, “Two machine operators of Perfact Color Digital have been trained at Autoprint factory in Coimbatore, so as to help them run the machine effectively, producing quality print all the time.”

The salient features of Dion 450 The Dion 450 offers exceptional print quality with its 15 inking rollers on each colour head. The double sheet detector of Dion 450 displays a warning message on control panel if there is any excess sheet fed into the machine. It has a pre-register plate punch machine which is used to punch all four plates of a four colour job in a same reference point, ensuring faster registration set-up, reducing the makeready time considerably and enhancing the productivity. The anti set-off powder spray unit facilitates faster drying of ink on the printed output without leaving impression on the reverse of the next paper. The time of the anti set-off powder spray unit is synchronized with the speed of the press, allowing for a precise quantity of power to be sprayed on the printed sheets.

While, the centralized touch screen operational panel allows easy operation and maximum productivity facilitating easy detection of defects and provides relevant feedback of the press operating conditions. And the automatic dampening system from Kompac, USA facilitate prints a thinner film of ink and water, enabling jobs to be turned over faster. The system is also ideally suited to run larger solids, complicated screens, tiny reverses and difficult jobs, in an efficient manner, resulting in 50 percent reduction in paper wastage and an average increase in production of 30 minutes per shift.

“The automatic dampening system from ‘Kompac’ (which not only ensures consistent print quality, but also acts as an additional inking unit to further enhance the print result) makes this machine very efficient in terms of faster makeready and almost the sixth sheet produced on this becomes a saleable copy. As the substrate is very expensive these days, we cannot afford to keep a provision of 100-200 sheets for makeready, which is generally taken for granted in offset process,” conveyed Arya, adding, “With this kind of feature offered in Dion 450 press, we were very happy to decide in its favour.”

What next?

With an impressive turnover of over Rs 50 crore, Perfact Color Digital is unique in itself and their production comprises of variable data printing to the tune of 90 percent. As per Arya, the decision towards acquiring this machine from Autoprint has been a wise one and they expect to achieve ROI in a very short period of one year itself. “We will not hesitate to go for few more machines from Autoprint,” concluded Ashwini Arya.