A successful Labelexpo India!

As many as 7,927 visitors attended the seventh edition of Labelexpo India which took place from October 29 – November 01 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. With around 200 exhibitors taking part, the show floor was busy with product launches and news of numerous deals signed on-site. Aimed at label and package printers, brand owners and label designers, Labelexpo India 2014 saw the leading Indian and international players showcasing their cutting edge technologies. Product launch highlights included new flexographic plates and equipment from DuPont Packaging Graphics, HP Indigo’s WS 6800 digital press, Multitec’s two new narrow-web label printing presses – Ecoflex VSi Servo and Ecosmart, Nilpeter’s Indian-made FB3300S press with gravure unit, Omet’s XFlex X4 8-colour all-servo press and Rotatek’s Smartflex UV flexo press.

2014’s edition also saw the successful debut of the Brand Innovation Summit. Held in partnership with HP Indigo, the half day conference programme was attended by several top brands including ACG Pharma, Cipla, Coca Cola, Dabur, GSK, ITC, Morepen, Nestle, Reckitt Benckiser and Siemens amongst others. The insightful session focused specifically on the role and importance of label and package printing in a brand’s design and ultimate sales performance in the Indian marketplace.

Jade Grace, event director said, “There was a good buzz about this year’s Labelexpo India and our exhibitors reported excellent visitor engagement with revisit numbers up 42 percent. This is not only a number game but attracting the right sort of visitor is crucial, so we are delighted to report an increase in senior decision makers attending the show. We’ve been really satisfied with the anecdotal feedback from our exhibitors with many of them securing large orders and generating strong leads. We look forward to returning in 2016.”

The exhibitors were equally delighted with the response they got at the fair. A Appadurai from HP India, shared, “Labelexpo India was the ideal platform to showcase the new HP Indigo WS 6800 digital press for the first time in India. One of the major attractions at our booth was the digital supermarket, where visitors could see first-hand, the various application possibilities for label and packaging converters. Our key highlight was the Brand Innovation Summit, where we were able to share insights with brand managers and owners, helping them understand the challenges and opportunities of the label industry. We were thoroughly pleased with the visitor engagement we had at the expo.”

While Sanjeev Chadha from Memory Repro Systems, shared, “This is our first participation at Labelexpo as for the past four decades we’ve been in pre-press and post press in offset printing. We got tremendous response to our newly launched flexo plate cleaning machine because printers were really looking for one such machine. Labelexpo India gave us exposure and we are sure to gain out of it.”

Encouraging response for Monotech Systems

Participating second time in Label Expo India, Monotech Systems displayed its strength in the Labels & Packaging segment. In their first participation the company only emphasised on its own manufactured and branded high speed industrial inkjet systems i.e. JETSCI Y & M series. But this year company has participated in an avatar which was altogether different and immense.

At the show, Monotech Systems launched JETSCI RL Series industrial inkjet systems and JETSCI VSRI, variable data printing, slitting rewinding and camera inspection system that is a requirement for the printers involved in pharmaceutical, security label printing and packaging works. The VSRI is equipped with Kyocera print-head and GEW UV drying lamps which enhance its capability to print through both water-based and UV inks. The JETSCI M series is a new product with speeds over 150 meter per minute either with UV curable ink or water-based ink, depending on the applications.

Jimit Mittal from Inkjet Systems, said, “It is raising our enthusiasm to see the positive response of the customers in our solution that we have proudly designed and developed in India. We strongly believe that this product will be welcomed by the customers in labels and packaging segment.

We already have booked two orders of JETSCI VSRI at the show and generate good amount of leads to work upon. We have a positive sight and look forward for few more installations within this current financial year”.

The company also presented Super Line, Anti-Counterfeit Design System from Founder, which is a digital design software for producing printed products with advanced security features to help prevent forgery and counterfeiting.

Apart from this, Monotech Systems also emphasised on its principal’s products i.e. EFI Jetrion range of digital colour label presses, and displayed the sample gallery of Highcon, high speed digital cutting and creasing production system; Scodix, digital enhancement press for packaging and Color Logic process metallic colour system.

In the digital front Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS 1052 Monochrome Digital Production System was also on display and remained an equal crowd puller.

UPM Raflatac at Labelexpo India –India showing signs of growth in the pressure sensitive adhesives market UPM Raflatac’s stand at the Labelexpo India 2014 was buzzing with customers, buyers and industry stalwarts alike. Hundreds of handshakes, smiles and interesting discussions were seen during the four-day-event. Most of the conference chat was focused on how India is showing signs of growth in the self-adhesive labelling market.

“We are seeing overall healthy organic growth in India and across South Asia, there’s plenty of potential in the region as PSA consumption per capita increases.

The Indian label stock market alone is still smaller than Spain, despite the fact that the country is in fact over 25 times bigger in terms of population, said Paddy Bailey, vice president, sales EMEIA at UPM Raflatac. India’s growth journey has only just begun.

The country’s burgeoning middle class is developing sophisticated tastes to westernstyle consumer labels. “The healthy growth is due to a rapid increase in pre-packaged food products, pharma sector growth and the massive appetite for personal care products,” commented Pravin Varshney, country manager of UPM Raflatac South Asia.

Rising consumer demand aside, sustainability was another hot topic at the event. “Indian companies are increasingly becoming aware of environmental issues, and the demand for environmentally sound products is increasing.

This is why UPM Raflatac is gaining a momentum in the country,” said managing director of UPM Raflatac India, Praveen Gupta. In India, UPM Raflatac works along the same principles of world-class technology, quality and performance, environmental sustainability and top class customer service as it does everywhere else. “Our brand is known in India for its quality. As captured by our customer promise and engineered with Raflatouch we are committed to delivering our customers high-quality products and first-class service,” Gupta continued.

“It is these commitments that set the company apart from its rivals,” said Trilok Mittal, the owner of Wonder Pac, an Indian label printing specialist. Mittal’s family-owned company has been a satisfied customer of UPM Raflatac for almost a decade.

“UPM Raflatac’s label solutions give us a competitive edge. Because of the quality of their products we are able to print the labels at a high speed and this means our production time is reduced,” said Mittal.

The same holds true also for Gururaj Ballarwad. He is the general manager of Wintek Flexo Printing, a division of Signode, whose customers represent high quality personal care products.

“For our customers, the quality of the label has to be just right, the adhesive cannot be sloppy or rough looking as it has to convey a certain image. This is why we use UPM Raflatac’s products. Also, if we order stock the day before, it reaches the next day. Very few of their competitors, if any, can perform like that,” said Ballarwad. Arrow@LabelExpo 2014

At Labelexpo India 2014, Arrow Digital displayed Any001 label press and AnyCut label finisher, besides a thermal transfer printer, Gerber Edge FX. At their demo centre, customers had the freedom to test print samples and gain hands-on experience of the machines.

The Any001 label press, which runs at 9.3 meters a minute, is a desktop-sized digital roll label printer using a single-pass LED color laser engine. The system focuses on precise registration – the web station is designed for precise control of exact registration (± 0.3mm width-direction variance) with supporting gap sensors and black mark sensors. This enables the printer to support any pre-cut labels and post-processing of rotary diecutters. While, AnyCut is a desktop-sized (220 mm web station) system using an air-cooled CO2 laser unit. The machine has a vision system as well as cutting mark sensors to compensate for registration errors in the printed label itself. The machine supports cutting on the fly without stopping; the cutting speed is 5-20m/min, making it up to 20 times faster than knife cutters. Arrow Digital Pvt Ltd distributes a range of materials and equipments for the digital printing and cutting markets.

“Do more with less”

“Every time a wide flexo press is installed, it brings in more business for flexo service providers,” says Vidhu Gautam, business and product manager, regional marketing lead, Packaging Solution Business, Asia Pacific Region, Kodak (Singapore) Pte Limited in a brief conversation at recently concluded Label Expo India in New Delhi.

Abraham S Prabhakar and Vidhu Gautam.That’s so true! With the increasing opportunities in package printing, specially with flexible packaging offering much small size package enabling retail business to grow, there are ample possibilities to invest in today’s competitive environment and still earn considerably.

To facilitate the growing demand and meeting the increased quantum of printed product, flexo process of printing has been becoming most preferred today. Gone are the days when offset process of printing was always having upper hand in respect of overall print quality. Print-buyers were always depending on that process and end up spending more money in respect of per unit cost of retail packaging.

But not any more now! With the advent of better quality consumables, pre-press operations and above all ever growing R&D in flexo platesetters in the market place, the pre-press bureaus have started looking at investing in these technologies. The latest in this field coming handy has been the direct computer to flexo plate.

Though gravure process of printing also has its own advantages in terms of much higher speeds of production, but does have its own limitations. The major one remains the inability of ‘quick change in designs so frequently.’ As per Vidhu, with the feasibility of getting matching print quality by flexo like offset or gravure, they have been able to capture good market with their FLEXCEL NX which was launched in drupa 2008. “Having four variants/devices on the offer, we have been able to install 400 such devices,” he adds.

KODAK FLEXCEL NX System is a complete solution for digital plate making that enables one to push the boundaries of flexo printing. The FLEXCEL NX System delivers shelf impact, production efficiency and sustainability – with unique imaging technology and innovative materials that enable unprecedented image quality, stability and predictability in prepress and the pressroom. It prints smoother, higherdensity solids without laying down more ink and reduces press downtime, makeready waste and ink consumption.

Apart from FLEXCEL NX, the role of software cannot be undermined. “At Kodak, we have been able to come out with new screening software enabling the print quality going beyond them before. The upcoming market of corrugation, which is essentially becoming necessary evil, is greatly, being benefitted with this. ‘Topdot’ concept with this being offered by Kodak, in fact, making our competition to gear up,” says Vidhu smiling.

Our offerings are essentially a bit expensive as of now, but we ensure value for money. And as such we do not worry on pricewar. As per Abraham S Prabhakar, vice president – packaging segment, India Cluster, CI Solutions Business-South, Kodak India Pvt Ltd, “We are witnessing 30 percent growth year on year and are proud to say that we have been able to install 14 machines of FLEXCEL NX System. Number of flexo printers using the plates produced on Kodak FLEXCEL NX System is quite a few as 50 percent of the installations comprise with pre-press bureaus who in turn serve greater number of printers supplying them flexo plates.

Vidhu on the concluding note, states that further on top of the state-of-the-art equipment Kodak does offer efficient Prinergy workflow which comes now in auto mode. This feature enables the print-buyers to facilitate last minute changes while the plates are being exposed. Color Dot@LabelExpo

Visitors to the the show could see live demo of OPALTONE system at the stand of Color Dot Madras Pvt Ltd. They used the Nilpeter Press with MacDermid LUX FLAT Top Dot Technology and GTT XS metering rolls from Apex, considered as the heart and the brain of the Flexo printing process, for improved printed results.

RS Bakshi of Color Dot explained that while using Pantone shades, residue is left over and printer needs to take this into account as well. “The OPALTONE system adds RGB, which offers a full gamut. It reduces density of ink and one gets more detailed images, especially highlights,” he added.

Steve Holman, director, Australasia Region, Opaltone shared that they offer these pieces of software – CX for designing, proofing and prepress. “It is a standalone solution with better colour impact and most of the functions are automated,” he added.

While Sam Seow, sales area manager Asia Pacific, Apex Europe BV, said, “We emphasise on quality and capability and have made great improvements in flexo technology. Our GTT XS metering rolls offer more consistency and longer usage life.”

ESKO & DuPont enthrall visitors with complete workflow display

At recently concluded Labelexpo India, New Delhi, Esko displayed its digital flexo plate making workflow, highlights included demonstration of CDI Spark 2530 and viewing of Suite 14, along with Equinox and Full HD Flexo, technologies that have recently received industry-wide acclaim. Here, Pradeep Ram marketing manager, southern Asia, ESKO and Prosenjit Das of DuPont share their views with P&P

Proud customers of DuPont Cyrel FASTEsko and DuPont jointly exhibited an Esko CDI Spark 2530 plate imager—a perfect size for smaller, narrow web presses that produce labels with DuPont’s products. “This year, we are getting very good response. As we tried a new concept of displaying complete work flow with DuPont, so it is really special for us,” shared Pradeep.

“Our Full HD Flexo is the recipient of a 2014 PIA InterTech Technology award. ‘Full HD Flexo for Labels’ features adapted screening and standard operating procedures for the label and tag industry, and delivers very high quality with impactful solids, smoother highlights and expanded colour gamut. It delivers enhanced print stability as well as a reduction of gear marks when using geardriven presses,” he added further.

While, Prosenjit Das of DuPont shared that the next version of FAST has been launched at the fair. “We have also launched TD1001 thermal developing unit.

Our Digiflow exposure unit is for flat top jobs. It has a digichamber where nitrogen is there, which gives an inert environment so that dots are flat,” told Prosenjit. The thermal developing units are available in three sizes – 36”x48” (displayed at the show), 40”x60” (two installations so far) and 50”x80” (one installation).

He informed that visitors appreciated the developing unit and one of their customers Creative Graphics has installed two units – 50”x80” and 40”x60”. “We have received good footfalls, with 2-3 potential customers apart from serious onlookers,” he added. “And the USP has been the Esko CDI,” he shared.

Esko CDI Spark 2530 flexo plate imager— for the tag and label market, folding carton and small volume flexo plate producers — with inline UV and Full HD Flexo was also displayed. Visitors learnt about HD Flexo and Full HD Flexo through real-life production samples that demonstrate the quality and extended colour gamut made possible by incorporation of Esko solutions.

Another major emphasis was Suite 14, an update of the world’s most complete collection of preproduction software tools for packaging and sign & display production. It supports and manages the packaging and print processes at brand owners, retailers, designers, packaging manufacturers and print service providers.

On asking about partnering with DuPont, Pradeep added, “When we decided to display this concept, the first name that we can think of is DuPont…it’s obvious. They need us and we need them… so it’s mutual, and DuPont is always very cooperative to us.” On a concluding note Pradeep shared, “This is a great time for packaging industry.

Growth in terms of labels is really fast and now industry has started taking this segment seriously. That is one of the positive changes for packaging industry, which has motivated us to bring even better solutions.”